MIDLAND - In a match that came down to the wire between the Saginaw Valley State University women's tennis team and the Walsh University Cavaliers, the Cavs prevailed with a 5-4 victory over the Cardinals on Saturday (10/4) in a contest that was played at the Midland Community Tennis Center.

Walsh held the advantage after doubles, as the visitors claimed two of the three match-ups.  The lone victory for the Cardinals came at #3 Doubles, where the freshmen tandem of Shea Donahue and Lauren Sharp provided a spark heading into singles play with an 8-3 victory.

Abigail Shonk and Sharp would finish first with victories at the #5 and #6 singles positions, respectively, to give SV a 3-2 lead.  Shonk claimed a 6-3, 6-1 win while Sharp disposed of her opponent with scores of 6-1, 6-1.

The Cavaliers would post wins at the #1 and #2 singles spots, swinging the momentum back in their favor with a 4-3 lead.

Donahue would come up big for the Cards in her #4 singles match to grab that momentum right back.  She battled back from dropping the first set 3-6 to even the match's score at 4-4 by closing out for the victory with wins of 6-3, 6-4.

That set the stage for the last remaining match on the court, which was at #3 singles.  Meghan Woody started strong, cruising to a 6-0 win in the opening set.  She would fall in a tiebreaker in the second by a 7-6 score and drop the third frame by a close 6-4 margin.

That gave Walsh the victory, 5-4, in what was a highly-competitive match.

SVSU Head Coach Jenn Boehm spoke to her players' performances today:

"It's never fun to lose a close match, but I am so proud of the way our team competed today!  We left it all on the court and gave ourselves a chance to win.  We will take the positives from today and use them in our match tomorrow.  We are steadily improving every time we step on the court."

Saginaw Valley returns to action at the Midland Community Tennis Center on Sunday (10/5) with a 10:00 am match against Ohio Dominican University.