Almost like a dual match

The No. 3-ranked Pirates had to wait.. and wait.. and wait at the EP Tom Sawyer State Park as Grand Canyon and Concordia (NY) played five-plus hours in a titanic 5-4 match that went to a third-set tiebreaker to determine who advanced.

So getting on the court at 1:30, nearly two hours after the pushed-back scheduled time from yesterday's rain, Armstrong didn't hesitate in getting out to a quick start, sweeping all three doubles matches from No. 5 Hawaii Pacific.

In singles play, however, the Pirates got pushed by the Seasiders. Only one match came up in straight sets for Armstrong - a 6-4, 6-2 win by Aleksandra Filipovski - but Hawaii Pacific got one back at five singles to make the score 4-1. With two more matches in third sets, Olga in a long second set after a first-set tiebreaker and Barbora in the middle of a second-set tiebreaker, Clara Perez came up with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 win over Carrie Shuler to clinch the match and send the Pirates into the NCAA Semifinals for the 15th time in program history.

Next up awaits No. 2 Barry. There are four teams left in the semifinals and three of them - No. 1 BYU-Hawaii, Barry and Armstrong - are ranked 1-2-3 and are all undefeated this season. The party crasher is No. 6 Abilene Christian, who beat No. 4 Lynn today, 5-1.

The interesting part, though, is that while the women were finishing off singles, Armstrong took a 2-1 lead in doubles over Hawaii Pacific, giving the match a very dual-match feel here in the NCAA Quarterfinals.

Armstrong will face Barry in the semifinals on Friday at 9 a.m. back at the Top Gun Tennis Center.