SOUTHLAKE, Texas – The No. 27-ranked Midwestern State Mustangs had to come from behind, but beat No. 17 Tarleton State 5-4 in the semifinals of  the Lone Star Conference Championships late Friday night.
 
The Mustangs (16-5) won their 10th straight and beat the TexAnns (11-11) for the second time in a week with the win.
 
"We played solid all the way, even in the matches we lost," said MSU coach Scott Linn.  "But this team comes out and plays together, and they really believe in each other that they can win and they do."
 
Midwestern trailed the entire match after going down 2-1 in doubles and then fell behind 4-1 during singles.
 
But MSU used the bottom of the singles lineup once again to beat Tarleton State.
 
The Mustangs ended the match when Madeline Schorlemmer and Kayla Casey, who scored MSU's only doubles point earlier in the contest, got game winning points at the same time to win the match 5-4.
 
Schorlemmer, playing No. 4, beat Ivana Zecevic 6-3, 1-6, 6-2, as Casey, playing No. 3, downed Melanie Barnes 7-5, 7-5 to close out the match.
 
Interestingly enough, Schorlemmer/Casey beat Barnes/Zecevic 8-5 at No. 2 doubles as well to account for three of the five points.
 
The Mustangs picked up another hard-fought win at No. 5 singles as Lauren Pineda bettered Marina Rull 6-2, 7-6 (7-4), while Fatima Clementino won at No. 6 over Silvia Nieva 6-2, 6-2.
 
MSU battled from the start, narrowly missing an upset at No. 1 doubles as Sarita Adhikary and Pineda went to a tiebreak against No. 25 Alicia Perez and Karla Martinez.  But the Tarleton duo fought off a match point to win 9-8 with a 9-7 tiebreaker.
 
Then the TexAnns' Rull and Makenzie Mitchell beat Taylor Coffman and Clementino 8-4 at No. 3 doubles.
 
Tarleton also collected wins at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, as No. 49 Perez beat Adhikary 6-2, 6-1, as Martinez defeated Coffman 6-2, 6-3.
 
The win puts Midwestern State in the championship match Saturday at noon against No. 5 Abilene Christian, who defeated Incarnate Word 5-0 in the other semifinal.