HONOLULU – Dominican women's tennis came from behind to win an extremely tight 4-3 match over University of Hawai'i at Hilo on Tuesday at Kailua Racquet Club to conclude its island road trip.

The Vulcans (1-1) worked their way into an early team lead as Anna Takahashi and Victoria Ricaurte-Cabas won No. 2 doubles 6-1 with Mila Srebro and Marie Cordonnier claiming No. 1 doubles 6-2 as well. Singles play was another story as all six matches went to three sets. Pia Starnecker was the first to claim a match for UHH as she won 6-0 in the first set but Kaylee Lopez claimed the second set 6-1 for the Penguins (3-1). Starnecker was able to find the momentum again in the third set winning 6-2 for the match victory. 

Ana Rios shook off an opening set 6-1 loss to Cordonnier and reeled off 6-2, 6-3 victories in the next two sets to get Dominican on the board. Maria Gavrilov started strong with a 6-2 win over Takahashi in the first set, but Takahashi used a late break to take set two 6-4. Gavrilov bounced back and won in dominant fashion 6-2 in the third set to tie the team match 2-2. 

Sofia Acuña also started will for the Penguins with a 6-2 victory, but Roggenkamp answered in the second set with a late break to squeak out a 6-4 victory. Roggenkamp took a quick 3-0 lead in the third set, but Acuña responded wining the next three games to tie it up. Roggenkamp settled in with the next break to pull out a 6-3 lead and push the Vulcans ahead 3-2 in the match.

Deepalakshmi Vanaraja and Srebro went back and forth from the first game as the two traded games to a 6-6 tie in set 1 and Vanaraja won the tiebreaker 7-4 to take the set. Srebro pulled away in the middle of the second set 5-2 but Vanaraja battled back and tied it 5-5, but Srbero recovered and took the final two games to send it to the third. Once again it was Srebro working out to an early 4-1 lead, but Vanaraja reeled off three straight games to tie the set up once again. After trading a pair of games, Vanraja held serve and then broke to win 7-5 and tie the team score 3-3. 

Ricuarte-Cabas and Lorenza Foster-Simbulan also traded games early with each taking small leads at different points, but it was Ricuarte-Cabas had a break to take a 5-4 lead and held serve to take the first set 6-4. It was a similar story in the second set with Foster-Simbulan this time getting the break to end the set with a 6-4 victory. Foster-Simbulan took an early 2-0 advantage in the deciding set, but Ricuarte-Cabas reeled off three straight victories in the ensuing games to take the lead. Ricuarte-Cabas broke to take a 5-4 lead late looking to hold serve to win the match for her team, but Foster-Simbulan fought it off to tie things up 5-5. Foster-Simbulan held serve in the next game to take the lead and then had one last break in her to end the match with a Dominican celebration. 

The Penguins return home to take on American River College on Friday at 1 p.m. PST pending the weather.