PARKLAND - Pacific Lutheran took a 2-1 lead after doubles play, but visiting Puget Sound rallied in singles to defeat the Lutes, 5-4, in a Northwest Conference women's tennis match played Friday at Sprinker Tennis Center.

The loss was the first of the season against four wins for Pacific Lutheran, while Puget Sound improved to 3-1. For both teams, all of their matches have come in conference play.

PLU started with convincing victories in first and second doubles. Samantha Lund and Payton McGriff rolled past Maddie Thiesse and Josephine Dow, 8-1, and Leah Newell and Tina Aarsvold combined to topple Logan Thompson and Marissa Friedman, 8-4, getting the Lutes off to a great start. The Loggers, however, picked up a key point with a close 9-7 win from Malia Ford and Allison Embernate over Allison McClure and Katherine Patton at third doubles.

That set the stage for some closely contested singles matches, with four of those contests going to a third set. Each team won two of those, with Puget Sound winning the crucial fifth team point at fifth singles. Dow fell behind a set to Catherine Miolla before rallying to win, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. The Loggers also got a come-from-behind win at second singles, where Jenna Gerdsen topped Leah Newell, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Pacific Lutheran also won both of its singles matches after trailing by one set. Lund rallied past Thiesse, 6-7, 6-1, 6-0, in the featured match, and Aarsvold stayed unbeaten this season in both doubles and singles by topping Friedman, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Winning in straight sets for Puget Sound were Thompson over McGriff at third singles, 6-2, 6-0, and Ford over McClure at sixth singles, 6-4, 6-3.

The Lutes continue a difficult three-matches-in-three-days stretch on Saturday afternoon with a Northwest Conference road contest against Lewis & Clark College in Portland. They are back to Sprinker Tennis Center at 2 p.m. on Sunday, hosting unbeaten Whitman

- PLU -