The #12 Keiser University women's tennis team dropped a hard fought match to #4 SCAD 5-4 on Friday afternoon in the Sun Conference Regular Season Championship. With the setback, the Seahawks finish the regular season in second place with a 10-7 overall record and 5-1 mark in conference.
 
The Bees took an early 1-0 lead when the #8 ranked doubles team defeated Teodora Stanciu and Lola Garcia 8-3. However, Keiser quickly leveled the match at 1-1 when Ana Pinto and Juliana Goncalves won 8-3 in the second spot and then Laura Ortega and Livia Toth put the Seahawks in front 2-1 with an 8-4 victory.
 
SCAD tied the match at 2-2 when Toth lost at the #6 singles position 6-4, 6-4 and the Bees upped the advantage to 3-2 with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Stanciu. The #20 ranked Ortega battled the entire match against the #2 ranked player but would come up short 6-4, 6-3 putting SCAD within one point from winning.
 
The Seahawks would not go down without a fight as Goncalves won 6-2, 6-3 in the third spot and then Garcia was victorious 6-4, 6-3 knotting the match back up at 4-4.
 
The match and the title came down to the #2 spot of Pinto who trailed 5-2 in the first set and rallied to within 5-4 before falling 6-4. In the second set, Ana saved four match points but could not overcome the deficit falling 7-5.
 
Head Coach Daniel Finn said, "This loss definitely stings especially since we had our chances. I want to brag on our girls and praise how hard they competed today. Three weeks ago we were struggling to even play as a team and since then we have come together and are one of the hottest teams in the country. I told the girls to keep their heads up and keep grinding. I want to congratulate SCAD on the regular season conference title as their girls deserved it. As for us, we will keep pushing harder and get ready for the conference tournament in a few weeks."