FRESNO, Calif. – The University of Hawai'i women's tennis team opened the 2010 Western Athletic Conference Tournament with a narrow 4-3 win over Idaho Friday afternoon at the Spalding G. Wathen Tennis Center. With the win UH advanced to tournament semifinals for the second straight year.
Aglae Van den Bergh proved to be the hero for the Rainbow Wahine, clinching the UH win with a three-set victory over Alexandra Ulesanu on the No. 4 court. The sophomore dropped the first set in a tie-breaker, rallied for a 7-6 win in the second set, then after dropping the first game in the deciding set, reeled off six straight games to secure the UH (12-13) win.
UH, the No. 4 seed, got off to a bad start by dropping two doubles matches as the first point of the day went to the No. 5-seeded Vandals (20-6). The Rainbow Wahine rebounded in singles with wins on four of the six courts and set up Van den Bergh's late heroics with a trio of straight -set victories by No. 2
Barbara Pinterova, No. 3
Katarina Poljakova and No. 5
Natasha Zorec.
The Rainbow Wahine, winners of five straight matches, now face top-seeded and No. 43-ranked Boise State in the semifinals on Saturday, May 1st at 11:00 a.m. PT (8:00 a.m. HT). One year after making the tournament semifinals for the first-time ever, UH will look to take the next step facing a Bronco squad that defeated UH, 6-1, earlier this season.
No. 4 Hawai'i def. No. 5 Idaho, 4-3
Doubles competition (Idaho wins point)
3. Algae Van den Bergh/
Natasha Zorec (UH) vs. Barbara Maciocha/Alexandra Ulesanu (ID) 6-5, unfinished
Singles competition
4. Algae Van den Bergh (UH) def. Alexandra Ulesanu (ID) 6-7, 7-6, 6-1
-UH-
