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SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's tennis team advanced to the semifinals of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Tournament with a thrilling 4-3 win over Mercyhurst University in the quarterfinal round Tuesday at the SRU Tennis Courts.
 
The win improves Slippery Rock to 14-6 overall and sends The Rock to the conference semifinals to face Eastern Division No. 1 seed Millersville University Friday at Bloomsburg University. A victory in the semifinal round would send SRU to the PSAC Championship match Saturday at Bloomsburg. Mercyhurst drops to 9-12 overall in dual matches on the year.
 
Tuesday's match came down to a thrilling No. 2 singles showdown between Slippery Rock's Adriana Gonzalez Sanchez and Mercyhurst's Naomi Jahr.
 
After the Lakers won the No. 5 and No. 6 singles matches to tie the overall match at 3-3, it left just the No. 2 singles match to decide which team would advance to the PSAC semifinals.
 
Jahr won the opening set 7-6 with a 7-4 win in the tiebreaker before Gonzalez Sanchez battled back to tie the match with a 6-3 win in the second set. Gonzalez Sanchez jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the third and decisive set, but Jahr won three straight games and recorded back-to-back breaks to tie the set at 5-5.
 
Gonzalez Sanchez returned the favor with a break of her own to take a 6-5 lead and then claimed the win by holding serve for a 7-5 victory.
 
Slippery Rock opened the match by picking up the doubles point with ease. Gonzalez Sanchez and Lois Page cruised to a 6-0 shutout over Kayla Dean and Roisin Murphy at the No. 1 position and Zoe Heed and Georgie Lancaster posted a 6-2 win at the No. 3 position over Valentine Budin and Sara Bertolez Puente to give The Rock a 1-0 lead in the match.
 
Dean picked up the first point for Mercyhurst when she defeated Page in the three sets at the No. 1 singles position. Page took the opening set 6-2, but Dean responded with 6-1 wins in the second and third sets.
 
SRU pushed out to a 2-1 lead when Nuria Martin Lopez won the No. 4 singles match in straight sets with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Murphy.
 
Slippery Rock pushed the advantage out to 3-1 when Gabriela del Val del Toro took the No. 3 singles match over Nadja Ostojic in straight sets. She won the first set 7-6 with a 7-5 edge in the tiebreaker and took the second set 6-4.
 
Mercyhurst battled back to tie things up with wins at the No. 6 and No. 5 positions. Budin posted a three-set win over Heed at the No. 6 position (3-6, 6-4, 6-3) and Bertolez Puente earned a three-set win over Teddi Isherwood at No. 5 (4-6, 6-3, 6-3), setting up the dramatic finish at the No. 2 position.
 
Slippery Rock will look to reach the PSAC Championship match when it faces Millersville at 2 p.m. Friday at Bloomsburg University in the PSAC semifinals.
 


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