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CINCINNATI - The University of Cincinnati women's tennis team won in dramatic fashion Friday night at the Western Tennis & Fitness Club, defeating Miami (Ohio) 4-3 after winning the final two singles matches on courts No. 6 and 1.
It marks Cincinnati's first win over the RedHawks since Jan. 26, 2007.
// DOUBLES:
Order of Finish - 3, 2
No. 1 | Nelli Ponomareva/Anastasiia Vasiukhin (MIAMI) vs. Ali Miller/Natalia Abdalla (CIN) no result (5-5 when play stopped)
No. 2 | Anzhelika Shpovalova/Hannah Shteyn (MIAMI) def. Harley Hutchison/Lauren Bellinger (CIN) 6-4
No. 3 | Ana Rajkovic/Andreea Badileanu (MIAMI) def. Katya Bure/Antonella Bramato (CIN) 6-1
The Bearcats started the match slowly, falling behind in all three doubles matches. Lauren Bellinger (Dublin, Ohio/Dublin Jerome) and Harley Hutchison (Joliet, Ill./Joliet Catholic Academy) battled back from a 3-0 deficit, but fell 6-4 to clinch the doubles point for Miami.
// SINGLES
Order of Finish - 2,3,5,4,6,1
No. 1 | Lauren Bellinger (CIN) def. Anzhelika Shpovalova (MIAMI) 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5)
No. 2 | Ali Miller (CIN) def. Andreea Badileanu (MIAMI) 6-1, 6-3
No. 3 | Antonella Bramato (CIN) def. Hannah Shteyn (MIAMI) 6-3, 6-3
No. 4 | Nelli Ponomareva (MIAMI) def. Natalia Abdalla (CIN) 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (8-6)
No. 5 | Emily Struble (MIAMI) def. Katya Bure (CIN) 6-4, 7-6 (7-4)
No. 6 | Harley Hutchison (CIN) def. Ana Rajkovic (MIAMI) 2-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-3
In singles action, Ali Miller (Portsmouth, Ohio/Portsmouth) got the Bearcats back on track quickly, winning in straight sets by scores of 6-1 and 6-3. Antonella Bramato (Pachuca, Mexico/Elise Freinet) gave Cincinnati a 2-1 lead with a win on court No. 3 with identical 6-3 scores. The freshman erased a 3-0 Miami lead in the second set to win.
However, things didn't look good for the Bearcats as Miami won the first set on all four other courts. The RedHawks evened things up after a win on court No. 5 where Katya Bure (Springfield, N.J./Jonathan Dayton) came up just short in her second-set tiebreaker.
Meanwhile, Cincinnati was making a comeback on the three remaining courts. Natalia Abdalla (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Colegio Augusto Laranja) won her second set 6-2 while Bellinger won her second set 6-3. Harley Hutchison needed an 8-6 win in the second-set tiebreaker to force a deciding third set, using some acrobatic moves on the set-clinching point.
All three courts went to third sets with each team needing two points to win. Abdalla fell behind early, at one point facing a 5-2 deficit. The sophomore battled back to force a tiebreaker at six-all but was unable to pull off the win, falling 8-6 in the extra frame.
Attention now turned to courts No. 1 and 6 where the Bearcats needed to win both in order to come away with a win. Bellinger was up 5-3 in the second set but found herself in a third-set tiebreaker.
Bearcats fans were splitting attention between the two courts until Hutchison clinched her match with a 6-3 victory in the third set. Moments later, Bellinger clinched her tiebreaker by an 8-6 score to give Cincinnati the 4-3 come-from-behind win over Miami.