NATCHITOCHES - The Northwestern State women's tennis team won its fourth 4-3 contest of the season Saturday with a come-from-behind victory over Southland Conference foe Abilene Christian.

Starting with a straight-set victory on court one by sophomore Iryna Vardanian and concluding with a thrilling three-set match on court five by freshman Judit Castillo, the Lady Demons (12-6, 5-3 SLC) came back from a 0-2 deficit against an ACU (14-5, 6-2) team that leads the conference in the win column.

"It was a great team win," head coach Olga Bazhanova said. "I am very proud of the girls and their strong fight and team effort today."

Castillo was down to the Wildcat's Autumn Crossnoe 1-0 after a hard fought 6-4 first set, but rallied in the second set and shut out Crossnoe in the second set.

With every eye in the Jack Fisher Tennis Complex focused on her, Castillo picked her shots and wore down her competitor, winning the final set 6-2. With the win, she is now 7-1 in Southland competition and 11-2 in dual play.

Playing in the No. 1 singles position for just the third time this season, Vardanian cruised against ACU's senior leader Erin Walker with a 6-2, 6-2 triumph. Vardanian evened her conference record in singles to 4-4 with the win.

Abilene conituned their dominance of doubles, winning courts one and three 6-2 and 6-3, respectively. The Wildcats are 15-5 against Southland schools in doubles competition and 36-16 overall.

"ACU is a very talented and strong team," Bazhanova said. "We were determined and stayed patient in singles after loosing the doubles point. We stayed aggressive and executed very well."

Setting up Castillo for the clinching match, junior Polina Ivanova and sophomore Polina Mutel picked up two wins to make the score 3-2 in favor of NSU.

Ivanova fell behind early in the first set on court two to Lucile Pothier who brought a ten match winning streak into singles. After finding her footing, Ivanova took the first 6-4 and finished the second set in the same fashion.

Playing a slower paced match on court three, Mutel battled to a 7-5 opening set victory and quickly jumped ahead of Whitney Williams 5-2 in the second set before finishing 6-3.

"I am happy to see our team leaders controlling the game and playing very well for us," Bazhanova said. "It was huge that Judit was able to get back into the game after dropping the first set and clinch the point for us."

The Lady Demons' homestand was short lived as they will return to Texas to face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi next Saturday and Incarnate Word on Sunday.

Follow updates as the end of the regular season comes to a close on Twitter @NSUdemonsWTN