WICHITA FALLS, Texas – No. 19 Southwest Baptist slipped past No. 15 Midwestern State 4-3 in a battle of top 20 teams on Saturday night at the MSU Tennis Center. 

After the two sides split the first two doubles matches, Midwestern State's top tandem of Ashley Ramirez/Taylor Gray battled back from a 5-2 deficit to force a tiebreaker against 5th ranked Jill Van den Dungen/Catarina Zheng before falling 7-6 (7-4).

"We showed fight in doubles," MSU Texas head coach Scott Linn said. "Sometimes you have to be in the position they were in to come out stronger. They did a nice job of showing fight."

Ramirez quickly evened the match at 1-1 with a 6-1, 6-1 thumping of Constanca Crespo at the number singles three spot. Emilija Visic handed the Mustangs their first lead of the match with a thrilling three-set win at number four. Visic dropped the first set 6-7, before claiming 7-6, 6-3 wins to make it 2-1 in favor of the Maroon and Gold.

In a clash between top 50 singles players at the top spot, No. 50 Van den Dungen defeated Casie Curry, 7-6, 6-4 to swing the momentum in Southwest Baptist's favor. The Bearcats won two of the next three matches to earn the win and prevent MSU Texas from a 4-0 showing at the Wichita Falls Invitational.

"The matches at numbers one, two, and five could have gone either way," Linn said. "Southwest Baptist is a really good team but this is a tough loss."

Dona Abohabaga clipped Lea Cizeron at number two, 7-6, 6-4 ahead of Catarina Zheng's come from behind win at number five. Zheng lost the first set to Juliette Mary, 2-6, and then rattled off consecutive 6-3 wins.

"Visic and Segetlija dropped that first set but battled back," Linn said. 

Emma Segetlija rallied from a set down to win at No. 6 in a super tiebreaker. 

Doubles
No. 1 – No. 5 Jill Van den Dungen/Catarina Zheng def. Ashley Ramirez/Taylor Gray, 7-6 (7-4)
No. 2 – Lea Cizeron/Casie Curry def. Constanca Crespo/Dona Abohabaga, 6-3
No. 3 – Diana Cabrera/Sarah Brown def. Juliette Mary/Emilija Visic, 6-1
 
Singles
No. 1 – No. 30 Jill Van den Dungen def. No. 43 Casie Curry, 7-6, 6-4
No. 2 – Dona Abohabaga def. Lea Cizeron, 7-6, 6-4
No. 3 – Ashley Ramirez def. Constanca Crespo, 6-1, 6-1
No. 4 – Emilija Visic def. Diana Cabrera, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3
No. 5 – Catarina Zheng def. Juliette Mary, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3,
No. 6 – Emilija Segetlija def. Lola Cincunegui, 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-4)
 
Order of finish: Doubles (3, 2, 1); Singles (3, 4, 1, 2, 5, 6)

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The start of Lone Star Conference play as the Mustangs host Dallas Baptist on March 13.