NATCHITOCHES – Louisiana Tech's Alexandra Starkova rallied for a 2-6, 7-6, 10-8 triumph over Northwestern State's Tatiana Larina in the No. 1 singles match Friday, capping a 5-2 win for the visiting Lady Techsters in a non-conference women's tennis match.

NSU's points came with singles victories at No. 2 by Natalya Krutova, 6-4, 6-1 past Jazmin Britos, and with an overpowering 6-0, 6-2 margin at No. 6 from Polina Ivanova as she defeated Taly Merker.

Louisiana Tech (1-5) won its first match after losing three to nationally-ranked opponents. NSU (0-3) dropped its second straight highly-competitive home outing after falling at No. 37 LSU last Saturday.

The Techsters completed doubles play just like the match concluded, with a dramatic down-to-the-wire win at No. 1. Tarrannum Handa and Marta Sramkova edged Larina and Aliona Ladutska, handing them their first loss of 2015 including a Flight 1 championship at the Florida Gulf Coast Invitational last month.

First-year NSU coach Olga Bazhanova was pleased with the overall competitive level of tennis on display in front of a big crowd at the Jack Fisher Tennis Complex, including a busload of Pineville High School students attending the Future Business Leaders of America meetings on campus earlier Friday.

"We played pretty well. We started slow in doubles, but we did very decently in singles. The matches in the first two positions were played at a very high level," she said. "I'm very proud of the girls. Everyone gave good effort, but we still have to work on a few things.

"We competed well today and Polina played a very good match. She dominated the way she was supposed to do."

The Lady Demons will play on the road for the next four straight matches, coming home for a non-conference weekend Feb. 28-March 1 against Southern Mississippi and Alabama-Birmingham and a March 7 doubleheader, opening defense of their Southland Conference championship against Central Arkansas and also playing Grambling that afternoon.

"We need to be ready for the conference, whatever it takes. In general, we are improving. It's a pretty young team overall. It's a little bit of a struggle at Nos. 4 and 5 right now, but they're going to get better," said Bazhanova.

Match results