SURPRISE, Ariz. – Dominican women's tennis could not hold on to an early lead as it fell 4-2 Wednesday to No. 6 seed Academy of Art at Surprise Tennis and Racquet Club.

The Penguins (9-10) got off to a strong start as Gina Dudley and Audrey Rafols combined to defeat the Urban Knights' (8-6) Julia Ortega and Erica Hellbe 6-1 on the top court. Maria Casucci and Yun "Nicole" Shiau evened the doubles portion for ART U with a 6-2 victory over Carolina Guerrero and Hannah Lam-Truong of Dominican. The teams turned their eyes to No. 3 doubles where the point would be decided between the Penguins' Zoe Coggins and Haley Garcia versus the Urban Knights' Paulina Alvarez and Aitana Comas Adam. The duos traded games to a 6-6 tie to add a little more intrigue as the match entered a winner take all tiebreaker. Coggins and Garcia pulled through for Dominican to claim the 7-6 (4) decision and give their team a 1-0 lead heading to singles.

Rafols kept the momentum going as she swept past Casucci 6-0, 6-0 on the top court to increase the Penguin lead to 2-0, but Adam got one back for ART U with a 6-0, 6-3 victory in No. 6 singles over Astrid Craig. Alvarez held off a late comeback attempt in the first set by Coggins to claim No. 5 singles 6-4, 6-1 to even the team score 2-2 as the final three courts were all within two games in the first set of play. Hellbe came from behind to claim the first set 7-6 (4) in No. 3 singles to get the Urban Knights a singles victory from the clinch. Shiau pulled out the clincher as she held off Garcia in two tightly contested sets for the 7-5, 6-4 victory.

Dominican will return to the court Thursday for its final match of the season against Biola at 5 p.m. PDT.