LOS ANGELES -- Cal State LA's women's tennis team had another lengthy battle on Sunday in another tightly-played match against a quality opponent.

The Golden Eagles started slowly and dropped the doubles point, but rebounded nicely to make things interesting in a 5-2 loss to Middlebury at the Cal State LA Tennis Complex. Cal State LA (6-6) was coming off a four-hour victory against Concordia on Wednesday and had another four-hour marathon on Sunday against Middlebury (3-0), one of the top NCAA Division III programs in the country.

After the Golden Eagles dropped all three doubles matches, the singles featured a lot more drama. Four of the six singles contests went to three sets with the Golden Eagles needing to win all four to take the match, but having to settle for two.

Berta Acero Garcia outlasted Maddi Stow, 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 at No. 4 singles, while Chelsey Ruiz battled back from losing a second-set tiebreaker to win the third-set tiebreaker in a 7-5, 6-7, 7-6 victory over Skylar Schossberger at No. 5 singles.

Luciana Di Laura fell in a three-set battle to Heather Boehm at No. 2 singles, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, while Mariko Sagara fell to Emily Bian in a third-set tiebreaker at No. 6 singles, 6-7, 6-4 (10-5).

Cal State LA will return to action on Saturday with a road match at Point Loma on Saturday. The Golden Eagles have only one home match remaining, on April 10, against Azusa Pacific in head coach Sandy Kriezel's final home contest of her outstanding coaching career.