HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- The No. 52 West Virginia State University women's team was defeated in a hard-fought match against West Liberty, 4-3, at the Brian David Fox Tennis Center on the campus of Marshall University on Tuesday. Both the Yellow Jackets and the Hilltoppers were unbeaten in the Mountain East Conference going into the match.

WVSU falls to 9-5 overall and 5-1 in the MEC following the defeat. Meanwhile, WLU jumps to 11-4 on the season and 5-0 in league play after the win.

No. 3 doubles was won easily by West Virginia State, 6-1, while No. 2 doubles was won handily, 6-3, by West Liberty. In the No. 1 doubles pairing, seniors Gaya Solomon and Chante Malo were edged by their opponents, 7-5, to concede the doubles point to the Hilltopers.

The No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 singles matches were all won fairly quickly by the Yellow Jackets. Malo, Maya Haidari and Julieta Beltramino each dusted off their opponents in two sets. With three points in the bag, WVSU needed to win one of their remaining singles matches to claim the team victory.

Unfortunately all three of those remaining matches did not go West Virginia State's way. Solomon came back to win the second set at No. 1 singles, but was defeated in the third set. Then, both Tuva Wallin at No. 2 singles and Julia Daszkiewicz at No. 6 singles ended up in third set tiebreakers. Both tiebreakers were won by West Liberty to clinch the match for the Hilltoppers.

Doubles
1. Arnal/Shchoma (WLU) def. Solomon/Malo, 7-5
2. Martirosyan/Cliffe (WLU) def. Moore/Haidari, 6-3
3. Wallin/Roland (WVSU) def. Valencia/Pena-Aceves, 6-1

Singles
1. Arnal (WLU) def. Solomon, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
2. Martirosyan (WLU) def. Wallin, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6(4)
3. Malo (WVSU) def. Cliffe, 6-0, 6-2
4. Haidari (WVSU) def. Valencia, 6-4, 6-2
5. Beltramino (WVSU) def. Pena-Aceves, 6-3, 6-3
6. Shchoma (WLU) def. Daszkiewicz, 5-7, 6-2, 7-6(8)

The Yellow Jackets will wrap up the regular season in Morgantown, W.Va. with a regional match against No. 58 Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The match is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m.