The Lenoir-Rhyne Women’s Tennis Team suffered their first loss in conference play on Tuesday with a 5-2 defeat to Limestone.

Despite the difficult afternoon for most of the Bears, Lucy Whelan had an impressive day on the court taking both her singles and doubles matches.

At No. 3 singles, the graduate student dominated Monika Temkova in a 6-3, 6-0 victory. Meanwhile, joined alongside Alicia Wahlberg at No. 1 doubles, the top duo was able to pull off a gusty 6-4 victory.

After dropping her first set in a tiebreaker, Evgeniya Pugina turned it around by winning the next two sets 6-1, 1-0 to complete another comeback victory at No. 1 singles.

The difference maker in the contest was that the Saints were able to prevail in the pivotal singles matches.

While coming up just match short of securing the doubles point, the Bears lost a pair of three-set matches in singles. At the No. 2 line, Wahlberg was able to take the second set in a 6-3 decision, but the junior just missed out on a comeback with a 6-3 defeat in the final set.

At the No. 4 singles, Sandy Mitsou had a similar storyline with winning the second set, 6-3. However, the senior could not translate that performance into the third set with a 6-1 loss.

The Lenoir-Rhyne Women’s Tennis Team will return home to take on Mars Hill on Friday, March 17 at 2:00 p.m.