The 2s Have It - No. 2 Women's Tennis Upends No. 1 Barry, Advances To NCAA Semfinals !

When No. 1 and No. 2 match up in any round of any national tournament, you know you are in for something special. So when two teams who played to a nailbitingly-close 5-4 decision in the regular season took the courts in the NCAA Quarterfinals this afternoon, it was destined to be the match of the tournament. 

And it was.

Marlen Hacke outlasted Barry's Karina Goia, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, at No. 4 singles to clinch a 5-3 win for the No. 2 Pirates over the top-ranked and previously unbeaten Barry Bucs and earn a berth into a 10th straight semifinals for Armstrong women's tennis. Included in that run are five national titles, two runner up finishes and two more third-place finishes. 

The match began with the Pirates taking two of three doubles matches from the Bucs - something they were not able to do in the regular season meeting between the two teams.

With a 2-1 lead heading into singles play, the Pirates and the Bucs each took three first sets in the singles matches. Aleks came up with a quick win over Elisabeth Abanda at No. 1 singles, and when Clara Perez downed Emma Onila in straight sets, the Pirates held a 4-2 lead with three matches left on the court.

Barry won at No. 6 singles, setting up doubles teammates Marlen Hacke and Olga Kalodzitsa with the pressure to close out the win. Olga lost the first set but battled back to win the second set, splitting sets. She would take a 3-0 lead in the third set as well, so you had to feel good about her chances at closing out that match.

Instead, Marlen saw a 5-1 third-set lead whittled away to 5-5, only to come back with a solid service game hold, then a break of Karina Goia's serve to clinch the match with a 7-5 win in the third set. 

So the four teams that are left in the NCAA DII Women's Semifinals are the four teams ranked No. 2 through No. 5 - the Pirates will face No. 4 Hawaii Pacific on Friday, while No. 3 BYU Hawaii will face No. 5 Abilene Christian in the other semifinal match.

Don't read too much into the Pirates' earlier-season win over Hawaii Pacific either. Yes, it was 7-2, but it was a hotly contested match with two three-set singles matches and two more that went to 10-point tiebreakers once the match was clinched. Plus, the Seasiders have experience in having faced the Pirates three times over the last two seasons, not to mention that their quarterfinal win over Southwest Baptist ended about an hour and 15 minutes before the Pirates finished with Barry.

So both Armstrong teams are in the semifinals for the fourth time in program history. The other three times being 2008, 2009 and 2012. We'll let you connect the dots.

Armstrong's matches tomorrow will be on the NCAA.com's video coverage again, and keep tuned to NCAA.com later for coverage of the Pirates' win from Denise Maloof, who is on site writing about the NCAA DII Tennis Championships and interviewed coach Simon Earnshaw after the big win today !