The UW-River Falls women's tennis team traveled to Northwestern University, St. Paul to face the Eagles on their home courts Friday night in a non-conference matchup.  The match was set up to be a great opportunity for the Falcons to rebound from last weekend's defeat and capture their first win of the season, and they nearly did it.

The Falcon's (0-2) won two of the three doubles matches to take the lead 2-1 against the Eagles (3-2).  Junior Abbie Reed and sophomore Kailey Courteau put the first point on the board for the Falcons with an  8-3 win at #1 doubles.  Juniors Delaney Osmond and Macy Ragsdale closed out their match on the fourth match point to win 8-5 at #3 doubles leading into singles competition.

The Falcons were very determined to continue their solid play, but knew it would be a tough battle against a good Eagles squad. 

The Eagles took leads at #2, #4 and #6 singles and closed out those positions to take a 4-2 lead before senior Gabby Potthoff won at #3 singles to cut the lead to 4-3 with 2 matches remaining.  Junior Delaney Osmond and sophomore Kailey Courteau were locked in tight matches to determine the winner of the match.

After splitting sets at #5 singles, Osmond and her opponent played a 10-point super tiebreaker that ended up in favor for the Eagles 10-6 giving the Eagles the team victory.  Courteau then won a second set tiebreak 7-5 to close her match out with the final score 5-4.

"I was very pleased with the determination our players showed today", said Falcons head coach Dan Stumpf.  "Our players faced a tough competitor today and battled hard to the end.   Our preparation has been outstanding this season and it showed today."

The Falcons will welcome Wartburg College to UW-River Falls for their first home match of the season on March 27 at 9:30am.