The Houghton College Women's Tennis team dropped a thrilling Empire 8 Semi-Final Match against the top seeded Nazareth College Friday, coming up just short 5-4. The Highlanders who were previously defeated by the Golden Flyers 7-2 earlier this season, proved that they would not go down without a fight in the tightly contested three hour affair. 

To start the match out, the Highlanders would roar off to an incredible start taking two of the three doubles flights. Tessa Brown and Marilynn Amborski would roll 8-5 at third doubles, and Chloe Esch and Maddison Soth would grind out a back and forth 8-7 (7-5) tiebreak victory on court two. The Highlander's got just the start they needed to give themselves a chance to upset the Golden Flyers heading into the singles play. 

Despite early losses on court one and two, the back end of Houghton's lineup hung on strong forcing several third set decisions. Chloe Esch provided a huge boost at fourth singles winning 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 to put the match back to equal terms at 3-3. At sixth singles, Tessa Brown would find the win column again giving the Highlanders a slight 4-3 edge in the overall match with her 6-3, 6-3 victory as well. The match would come down to third and fifth singles who were each battling in their own third set affairs. Senior Maddison Soth continued to show her heart on court fighting back from a first set defeat, but could not close out the third set falling 2-6, 6-4, 3-6. With the match score tied at 4-4, the decision would come down to Marilynn Amborski at third singles. After falling 1-6 in the first set, Amborski started to find her groove taking the second 6-4. With a fighting spirit, Amborski would battle until the end but could not hold off Lauren Carr who came out on top 1-6, 6-4, 4-6 to book the Golden Flyers a spot in the E8 Final. 

"What a tremendous effort by all nine ladies here today," Head Coach Zach Shilvock said after the season ending defeat. "This team can truly walk away from this match knowing they left everything they had out there, and that is a testament to the type of people we have on this team. We knew all week long that we had a shot, and we put ourselves in a position to knock off the #1 seed. It's a heartbreaker, but I am so proud of the amazing season this team had. Good things are on the horizon for Houghton Tennis!" 

Nazareth will move on to the Empire 8 Final to take on Hartwick tomorrow at 1pm. The Lady Highlander's will have a break and will look to come back strong for the non-traditional spring season in February.