App State battled to the very end, but it was unable to complete a comeback in a 4-2 loss to Wyoming in a wild first round of the Universal Tennis NIT Championship on Wednesday.

Like many matches this season for the Mountaineers, the day was filled with weather and drama between No. 4 seed App State (13-9) and No. 5 seed and No. 70 nationally ranked Wyoming (15-10).

The Cowgirls won the doubles point with 6-3 wins on courts one and three, meaning the Mountaineers would need to win four of six singles courts to capture the team victory and advance to Friday’s semifinals.

After Ellie Murphy dropped her match on court six to make the deficit 2-0, Olwyn Ryan-Bovey got the Mountaineers on the board with a 6-4, 6-3 win on court five to pull within one.

Continuing her fantastic freshman season, Savannah Dada-Mascoll earned a hard-fought 7-5, 6-3 win over Wyoming’s Maria Oreshkina on court two to tie the team match at 2-2.

After Wyoming gained back a 3-2 lead on Noesjka Brink’s win over Maggie Pate at No. 3, the rains started to pour on the Peachtree City Tennis Center, forcing the final two singles matches to move indoors.

After a nearly hour-long weather delay, the No. 1 and No. 4 singles matches resumed indoors with both Helena Jansen and Erika Dodridge in tight third and deciding sets. Dodridge took a 4-2 lead in her final set, but Jansen was taken down by Wyoming’s No. 1 player, Sophie Zehender, by a score of 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 to conclude the match.

App State will play one more match in Thursday’s consolation bracket against UC San Diego with an anticipated start time of 8 a.m.

Universal Tennis announced the NIT Championship in March as proof of furthering support of college tennis by the organization, which generates millions in revenue for college programs each year and has streamed over 20,000 matches featuring more than 1,300 college players globally.

The announcement of the NIT Championship follows the launch of the Universal Tennis Collegiate Alliance (“UTCA”), which was created to support the future of all college programs in the United States. The UTCA Executive Committee voted unanimously to support the launch of the NIT Championship.