DAHLONEGA – The No. 9 University of North Georgia (UNG) women's tennis team dropped a thrilling 4-3 home match against No. 4 Flagler at the UNG Tennis Complex at Yahoola Creek on Saturday.

For the second time this season a match between the Nighthawks (10-6, 1-1 Peach Belt) and Saints (14-2, 2-0 Peach Belt) was decided in the final singles match of the contest.

Saturday's decision came down to #3 singles between UNG freshman Vasilissa Kupriyanova and Flagler's Adela Latalova.

The Nighthawks took advantage early in the match with a dominant win in #1 doubles from ITA women's doubles No. 30 pairing of seniors Angelina Linnikova and Carolina Reis. The powerful duo took down the No. 7 doubles grouping in the country of Dana Heimen and Anastasia Nikolova 6-1 for the victory.

Later, Kupriyanova and senior Ashley Moinard banded together for a thrilling 7-5 win in #3 doubles to win the overall points and go ahead 1-0 in the match. 

Linnikova moved on to the #1 singles match and simply dominated in perhaps her most impressive win of the season. Ranked as the No. 5 women's singles player nationally by ITA, Linnikova would have her wits tested against Heimen who ITA has labeled as the No. 2 singles player in the country.

The two rivals faced each other at the ITA Indoor National Championships back in February and Linnikova came back from 2-6 defeat in the first set to win 6-3, 7-5 in the final two sets and take the match. That victory helped the Nighthawks come away with a 4-3 win over the Saints.

Saturday was different. This time Linnikova simply dominated the second-ranked singles player in the country. She defeated Heimen 6-2, 6-0 for her 14th straight singles victory this spring. She remains the only undefeated player in the ITA top 10 in the spring portion of the season. 

Linnikova is 21-2 in singles matches going back to the fall portion of the season which includes play in the ITA Southeast Regional and ITA Cup. In that span she is 6-2 against nationally ranked opponents and 4-1 against opponents in the top 15. Her one top-15 loss came against No. 1 Ashleigh Simes from Lee back on Oct. 12 who she exacted revenge upon with a 7-6 (9-7 tiebreaker), 6-4 victory on March 8. Linnikova is 3-0 against the No. 1 and 2 players in the country this spring.

Her massive victory on Saturday gave the Nighthawks a 2-0 lead in the overall match. 

However, the Saints rallied to win the the next three matches at #6, #2 and #5 singles to pull in front 3-2 and reach within one victory of clinching the match.

In #4 singles, Nighthawk freshman Linn Goerdes defeated Laura Jipescu 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to even the match at 3-3. 

With the #3 singles match between Kupriyanova and Latalova still in progress, the overall match would be decided by its winner. Despite an impressive effort from the UNG rookie, Latalova outlasted Kupriyanova 7-6 (10-8 tiebreaker), 3-6, 6-3 to come away with the win for herself and the Saints. 

The Nighthawks will now travel to Greenwood, S.C. for another Peach Belt Conference match. They will face the Bearcats of Lander on Friday, April 4 at 12 p.m.