Things were looking precarious following doubles during Houghton's Women's Tennis Senior Night and Tuesday evening match against D'Youville. 

The Highlanders lagged 1-2 against D'Youville following doubles play. No. 2 doubles, Senior Alicia Cline and Sophomore Erin Haley, won their proset 8-4. But No. 1 and No. 3 doubles were unable to secure victories, dropping their matches 4-8 and 3-8.

Houghton's first singles victory tied up the overall match score at 2-2 and was provided by Senior Alicia Cline at No. 4 singles. Cline won her match handedly at 6-2, 6-3. The next four matches split between D'Youville and Houghton. No 2 Erin Haley won her singles match 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 while Tessa Brown won her No. 5 match at 6-2, 6-2. Houghton lost two close matches at first and sixth singles to give an overall 4-4 match score. Senior Catie Moore clinched the victory for the Highlanders with a 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 victory after being down 2-5 in the third set.  

"I am so proud of the girls. We have talked a lot the last few days about program buy-in, self-confidence, and putting yourself out there for the team. That's exactly what they did today. You simply cannot pull out close, competitive, talent-matched competitions like that if you don't put your heart and mind into it." Says Head Coach Tonya McGraner "And what a treat that we had our two seniors bookend our singles victories, that was huge for them. You couldn't have asked for a better day for everyone to show up and leave it all on the court than the one where we are honoring these senior girls. This was the breakthrough we've been working for as a team."  

The work for the Highlanders' is far from over this week. The final two conferences matches set for this weekend will determine if the team has a spot in the E8 Championships next week. Houghton faces up against Hartwick first, on Friday at 4:00pm away.