Women's Tennis Wins 4-3 Thriller Over Valparaiso

3/12/07-- Sophomore Liliana Cortes (Cochabamba, Bolivia) was one of three LIU women’s tennis players to record singles victories and won the deciding point in a 4-3 victory over Valparaiso in Orlando, Fla. on Monday afternoon.

In the final match of the day and with the match tied at 3-3, Cortes posted a 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) victory over Whitney Chada at No. 4 singles to secure the Blackbirds’ second straight win.

Long Island opened the match by winning the doubles point in three closely contested matches. The Blackbirds won at both first and third doubles to take the point, with sophomores Amy Hosotsuji (Toronto, Ontario) and Ashley Harvey (Randallstown, Md.) teaming up to take the third doubles match in a tiebreaker, 9-7.

After dropping the first singles match of the day, LIU rattled off two straight victories to take a 3-1 lead. Harvey won in straight sets, 6-1, 6-0, at the second spot while senior Merve Koksal (Ankura, Turkey) battled through illness to gut out a 4-6, 6-4, 10-7 win at No. 3 singles.

It looked as though the Blackbirds would cruise to victory as Hosotsuji won the first set of her No. 6 singles match, 6-3. But the Crusaders stormed back by winning that match as well as a straight-set victory at the fifth singles spot to tie the match at 3-3 before Cortes’ victory.

Long Island (4-4) continues play in Orlando on Wednesday, March 14 against Manhattan at 12:00 p.m.