ORLANDO, Fla. -- No. 24 Washburn women's tennis (18-6) made history by becoming the first team in program history on the women's side to advance to the NCAA National Quarterfinals after coming back to defeat No. 29 Azusa Pacific (22-6) 4-3 on Friday afternoon. The Ichabods face No. 5 Flagler in the next round at 3 p.m. central time.
Washburn, the No. 12 seed in the tournament, knocked off the No. 5 seeded Cougars to win an eighth straight match, the fourth in a row against top-40 ranked teams.
Casie Curry and Marta Torres began the day at No. 3 doubles, working quickly to earn a 6-3 victory to create an advantage. After trailing early in the set, the No. 8 ranked tandem of Maja Jung and Sonia Smagina rallied late to defeat No. 9 ranked Madison Kane and Eleonora Liga 6-4 and clinch the doubles point for the Ichabods.
Isabella Martensson and Issabella Pensavalle led 4-3 at No. 2 when the point was decided.
The Cougars evened up the score at one point each with Torres falling 6-4 and 6-1 in her match at No. 4. After dropping the first set 6-0, Martensson fought back in the second set but fell 6-4 on court five. No. 2 Smagia fell down 4-0 early in her first set against No. 6 ranked Liga on court one. She won the next six games to win the opening set and followed it up with a clean 6-0 sweep of the second set to even the match back up at two.
Jung, No. 27 ranked in singles, came back from down one game to force a tiebreaker in her first set at No. 2, but came up short in the tiebreaker, falling 7-6(2). The second set went Azusa's way, 6-3, to put the Cougars up 3-2.
Playing at No. 6 Pensavalle lost a back-and-forth opening set 7-5 but rallied to win her second set 6-4. The momentum continued into the third set as she jumped out to a 4-0 win before coming away with a 6-1 win to knot the match at three.
At No. 3, Curry won a tight opening set, escaping out of the tiebreaker with a 7-6(4) victory. She fell behind early in the second set but tied it up at 4-4 before falling 6-4. In the third set, more than three hours after the match began, she jumped out to a 3-0 lead, lost four of the next five games but came out on top the last two to win 6-4 and send Washburn to the National Quarterfinals.
Doubles competition:
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Jung, Maja/Smagina, Sonia (WU) def. Kane, Madison/Liga, Eleonora (AP) 6-4
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Martensson, Isabella/Pensavalle, Issabella (WU) vs Bautista, Vini/Tudor, Miruna (AP) 4-3 UF
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Curry, Casie/Torres, Marta (WU) def. Lopez, Shannele/Wong, April 6-3
Order of finish: 3, 1
Singles competition:
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Smagina, Sonia (WU) def. Liga, Eleonora (AP) 6-4, 6-0
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Kane, Madison (AP) def. Jung, Maja (WU) 7-6(2), 6-3
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Curry, Casie (WU) def. Wong, April (AP) 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-4
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Bautista, Vini (AP) def. Torres, Marta (WU) 6-4, 6-1
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Tudor, Miruna (AP) def. Martensson, Isabella (WU) 6-0, 6-4
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Pensavalle, Issabella (WU) def. Nguyen, Katherine (AP) 5-7, 6-4, 6-1
Order of finish: 4, 5, 1, 2, 6, 3
