WALLA WALLA, Wash.—Senior co-captain Rachael Rice earned a thrilling comeback win at number one singles, to earn Lewis & Clark women's tennis' lone point of the day on Sunday against host Whitman University. 

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KEY MOMENTS 

The host Blues swept doubles play and only dropped one full set in singles action, to earn an 8-1 win over the Pioneers. 

"Whitman is obviously a strong team and we are still finding our way on the doubles court," head coach Jimmy Chau said. "Eadie Poulsen and Arielle Bloom are beginning to play more dynamic doubles and we're excited by what that means for our future." 

The Pioneers third doubles pair of Poulsen and Bloom fell 8-4 at third doubles in the tightest of the three matches.  

In singles play, Rice made her final match against a conference opponent a memorable one. After dropping the first set 6-2 to Ilina Jha, Rice roared back in the second set to take a 6-3 set win and force a super tiebreaker at first singles. The Pioneers senior doubled up Jha 10-5 to earn a 2-6, 6-3, 10-5 win over the Fall ITA Quarterfinalist. 

Freshman Hayley Kreps also played an extremely competitive match. She dropped the first set 6-4 to Irene Tsai, before forcing a tiebreaker in the second set on court five. Tsai eventually held on for a 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) at fifth singles. 

"I generally believe the scores tell the whole story, but there was a lot of good tennis played out there today," Chau commented. "The Blues were just one ball better at most lines." 

DEEPER LOOK 

• Rice, who's been battling a back injury for several weeks, snapped a five-match singles losing streak with her win today. She improved to 6-8 on the year in singles and 4-6 at number one singles. 
• The Pioneers wrap up their Northwest Conference slate with a 3-5 conference record. Lewis & Clark will finish the season ranked sixth out of nine teams in the NWC. 
• Rice goes into the Pioneers finale with 45 career wins (21-17 in singles and 24-18 in doubles) in 80 career matches. 

WHO'S NEXT 

Lewis & Clark will close out the regular-season next Saturday, when they host Bellevue College at 1 p.m.