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SoCon Tournament Central

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- In enemy territory Saturday, the top-seeded Samford University women's tennis team fought from behind to earn a thrilling 4-3 win over the homestanding Furman Paladins in a critical Southern Conference Tournament semifinal contest held at the Mickel Tennis Center on the campus of Furman University.
 
With the victory, Samford (15-8) extended its winning streak to five-consecutive matches and advanced to Sunday's SoCon Tournament championship against ETSU. The match is slated to begin at 9 a.m. (CDT).
 
ETSU, the third-seeded team in the tournament, advanced to the championship match by defeating No. 2-seed Chattanooga, 4-2, on Saturday. Earlier this season, Samford and ETSU squared off in Birmingham, Alabama on April 4 and the Bulldogs tallied a hard-fought 4-3 win.
 
Samford has been victorious in 10 of its last 11 matches and owns a 9-0 record against league opponents this season.
 
The Bulldogs' winning ways nearly came to an end Saturday.
 
With Furman leading, 3-2, Samford needed to win both singles matches on courts No. 5 and No. 6 to claim the victory.
 
Initially, things didn't look good for the Bulldogs as junior Iva Parapunova lost the first set against Furman's Harper Caswell, 7-5. The Paladins, playing in front of their home crowd and needing just one more set to advance to the championship match, realized that their hopes would most likely come down to court No. 5.
 
In the No. 6 singles contest, Samford's dominant true freshman Savannah Wood was riding a nine-match winning streak and breezed to a 6-2 win in the opening set against Alejandra Gil.
 
The tide then immediately turned on court No. 5 as the Bulldogs' Parapunova rolled to a 6-1 victory in the second set. She maintained her momentum in the third stanza and earned an identical 6-1 triumph to win the match and even the score at 3-3.
 
At that point, things were looking good for Samford as Wood held a decisive 5-0 second-set advantage on court No. 6. She went on to extend her singles winning streak to 10-consecutive matches by dropping Gil, 6-2, 6-0.
 
With Wood's victory, the Bulldogs clinched the come-from-behind win and secured their ticket to Sunday's SoCon title match.
 
Samford, the regular-season SoCon champions, will be making their second straight appearance in the title match. Last season, the Bulldogs suffered a heartbreaking 4-2 loss to Elon in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
 
Saturday's contest opened in stellar fashion for Samford as the Bulldogs breezed to the doubles point.
 
On court No. 2, the combination of Yasmeen Ebada and Jessica Northcutt blanked its Furman counterparts, 8-0, while Samford's No. 1 doubles crew of Stephanie N'tcha and Carita Moolman strolled to an 8-3 triumph.
 
The Bulldogs' Ebada and Northcutt extended their winning streak to 11-consecutive matches with the win.
 
In singles play, Furman evened the score at 1-1 by taking a straight-set victory on court No. 2. Samford then garnered a 2-1 advantage as Northcutt rallied past Blair Martin in three sets, 1-6, 6-4, 6-2, on court No. 3. With her victory, Northcutt notched her fifth-consecutive triumph and improved to 13-9 on the season.
 
Four of the six singles matches were decided in three sets Saturday. Following Northcutt's win, Furman rebounded by tallying victories on courts No. 4 and No. 1 to take its 3-2 advantage.
 
The Samford University women's tennis team will next be in action Sunday at 9 a.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs square off against the ETSU Buccaneers in the championship final of the SoCon Tournament being held at the Mickel Tennis Center on the campus of Furman University.
 
The winner of Sunday's showdown will earn an automatic bid to the 2015 NCAA Tournament.

Box Score
Samford Stats
SoCon Tournament Central