HONOLULU – The No. 7 Hawai'i Pacific University women battled to the end, but Division I Long Beach State held on to take a 4-3 win on Friday at the University of Hawai'i Tennis Center.
 
The Sharks (5-2) dropped their second match of the season, while the Beach (4-3) won their third straight match.
 
The Sharks dropped the doubles point, but like the rest of the match, sent to the wire. HPU won at No. 1 as Shaline Pipa and Marleen Tilgner downed Zara Lennon and Sheena Masuda 6-3. But the Beach took No. 2 with Nikola Homolkova and Peppi Ramstedt beating the Sharks Elodie Busson and Mihoki Miyahara 6-4. The point hinged on No. 3, with the Beach's Claire Le Du and Andreea Clomei edging Valentina Mokrova and Marta Ruszczynska 7-5 to put LBSU up 1-0.
 
The Sharks came back in singles play.
 
Pipa took No. 1 against Homolkova 6-2, 7-5 and Miyahara won at No. 4 over Le Du 7-5, 6-3 to put HPU up 2-1.  LBSU came back with a win at No. 6 as Ciomei downed Ruszczynska 6-3, 6-4, and retook the lead after a win at No. 2 as Lennon beat Busson in three sets 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 to regain the lead 3-2.
 
HPU rallied back to tie with a win at No. 3 as Tilgner won in three over Masuda 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, making the score 3-3.
 
The match was decided at No. 5. Mokrova took the first set from Ramstedt 6-2, but fell in second on a tiebreaker 7-6.  Ramstedt came up strong with the deciding set, winning the first five games before taking a 6-1 win to give the Beach the match.
 
HPU has one more Division I match on the schedule. The Sharks host Army West Point on Sunday morning at the UH Tennis Center, with first serve slated for 10 a.m.