SPOKANE, Wash.- The Gonzaga Women's tennis team fell 4-3 to Washington State this afternoon inside the Stevens Center. This was Gonzaga's first loss of the season for a 4-1 overall record; Washington State improves to 4-2 on the season.
 
The Cougars took the early advantage, winning all on three courts in doubles play. The first to finish was No. 2 doubles as WSU's Hikaru Sato and Michaela Bayerlova defeated Jenna Sloan and Kate Ketels 6-3. The Cougars secured the doubles point at No. 3 when Pang Jittakoat and Fifa Kumhom won 6-2 against Haruna Tsuruta and Kianna Oda. Court three played out, and Yang Lee and Melisa Ates beat Zag's Adrianna Sosnowska and Hannah Jones 6-4.
 
In singles play, victories on courts five and six gave WSU a 3-0 lead to the match relatively quickly. Ly-Nguyen beat Sloan 6-1, 6-2 at No. 5, and Ates won 6-2, 6-4 against Oda at No. 6. Gonzaga's Kate Ketels lost her first set 2-6 and fought hard in the second set, but Ketels ended up falling in the second set 5-7 to give WSU the clinch.
 
Though Washington State had secured the match victory with four points, they played all courts out and Gonzaga pulled a win in all three remaining singles matches. The first to win for the Zags was at No. 4 as Cate Broerman defeated Kumhom in a come-from-behind three-set battle, 1-6, 6-2, 6-0.
 
"It was a tough match today, but we'll just build from here," said Broerman.
 
Tsruta secured the next victory for Gonzaga, winning both her sets 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) on court five. The match ended with another come-from-behind victory, this time from Sosnowska at No. 2. After dropping her first match 6-3 against WSU's Sato, she came back and won her second and third sets with identical scores of 6-4 to give the Zags their third point of the match.
 
The Bulldogs are back in action next Sunday against Montana. The match is set to start at 10 a.m. inside the Stevens Center. Check GoZags.com for up-to-date match information.