SPOKANE, Wash. — The 47^th-ranked Gonzaga women's tennis team earned a huge win over No. 15 Washington State, 5-2, on Sunday afternoon at the Stevens Center.
 
The Zags (5-2) had never beaten the Cougars (10-2) in 10 all-time meetings between the squads, but GU took care of the doubles point and then won four of six singles matches.
 
"The difference today was our energy," head coach D.J. Gurule said. "We went into the match with a great mentality. Even when things were tight, we just kept our energy up. WSU is a super-talented team and well-coached. I'm proud of the way we battled today, and hopefully this will give our team confidence moving forward."
 
GU's Kate Ketels clinched the match on No. 6, getting the fourth point with a long second set tiebreaker in which she had several match points and defeated several set points. The tiebreaker went to 10-all before Ketels was able to get two straight points to close it out in straight sets.
 
Gonzaga and WSU battled in doubles with GU seizing the momentum late in the point. On No. 3, Haruna Tsuruta and Kate Ketels got out to a 5-0 lead on the way to a 6-2 win. And after WSU came back from down 4-0 on No. 2 to win, it came down to GU's Sophie Whittle and Graciela Rosas on No. 1. The GU pair won five of the last six games to take the match 6-4.
 
Then in singles, fourth-ranked Whittle dominated against No. 35 Michela Bayerlova in a 6-0, 6-3 win to make it 2-0, followed by a victory by Rosas on No. 2, 6-1, 6-3.
 
WSU scored the next two points in singles to pull back to within one at 3-2, but that's when Ketels grabbed control of her match on the way to the clincher. Domonique Garley added the fifth point when she came back from down a set to win 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-2.
 
Gonzaga will be back on the court on March 3 when they open West Coast Conference action with Santa Clara at 11 a.m. at the Stevens Center. Live coverage will be available at GoZags.com.