DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The seventh-ranked Embry-Riddle women's tennis team earned its fourth conference win of the year with an 8-1 defeat of No. 21 St. Thomas, Thursday at the Crotty Tennis Complex. Freshman Hui-I Huang recorded a three-set upset of second-ranked Tetiana Kovalska to help the Eagles improve to 4-5 overall and 4-1 in Sun Conference play.

“[Hui-I] is capable of playing and winning at that level,” ERAU Head Coach Dave Paschal said of Huang's performance. “She played the match I've been expecting her to play.”

The Eagles picked up two early points in doubles play as Ana Gonzalez-Hoy and Meena Bennett defeated Lauren Lightfoot and Brigitte Bustamante 8-1 at the third spot and Paola Montero and Giovanna Tomiotto downed Monica Rekkedal and Ashley Ahern 8-2 at No. 2.

At No. 1 doubles, fourth-ranked Kristina Marova and Huang went up 6-5 against STU's 12th-ranked pair of Kovalska and Gabriella Bongiovani. The Bobcats managed to come back and win the match 9-7 to make the team score 2-1.

The Eagles' first singles point came at the No. 2 spot where Marova took a 4-3 lead and got the win when Bongiovanni had to retire because of an injury. The Eagles got their next point at the No. 3 position where Montero bested Rekkedal 6-2, 6-2 to put the Blue and Gold up 4-1.

Needing to win just one more singles match, the Eagles appeared to have the contest in hand as the first sets in each of the remaining matches went in favor of ERAU. St. Thomas did not back down, however and pushed three of the four remaining matches to third sets.

After downing Ahern 6-2 in the second, Gonzalez-Hoy dropped the second to Lightfoot, 6-4. Down 4-3 in the third, the ERAU freshman fought back to win 6-4 and clinch the Eagle win. Next to Gonzaelz-Hoy on court six, Bennett easily won the first set 6-1, but had to withstand a fierce rally from Bustamante to pull out a second-set victory 7-6 (7-3).

Tomiotto also notched an easy 6-2 win in the first frame, but Ahern battled to a 6-4 win in the second. The third set went back and forth and in the end, Tomiotto fought for the victory, topping Ahern 6-4 at No. 4

The final match on the court was at the top singles spot between seventh-ranked Huang and 2012 ITA/NAIA national singles runner-up Kovalska. Both players faced each other in the championship match of the ITA regional back in November and then, it was Kovalska who won in straight sets to claim the title. Thursday's rematch saw Huang take an early lead, winning the first set 6-2. Kovalska jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the second, but Huang showed resiliency by battling back to knot the score at 6-6. Kovalska managed to hold on to win the tiebreaker 7-3, forcing a third set. With the team score already reflecting a victory for ERAU, Huang and Kovalska only needed to play a 10-point tiebreaker in the third and Huang avenged last fall's loss with a 10-6 decision to cap the Eagle scoring.

“We've played a difficult schedule this season,” Paschal said. “I think that's toughened us up. St. Thomas is a team that's right there as one of the top teams in our conference and even though we had the lead, they made a run at the end, pushing those three matches to three sets. The tough matches we've played paid off, because we won all of those three-setters.”

The Eagles will have little time to rest as they return to their home courts at 10 a.m. on Saturday to take on No. 15 Olivet Nazarene.