KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan women's tennis team trailed Buffalo 3-1 with three final singles matches to play Friday afternoon at West Hills Athletic Club, where the Brown & Gold completed an improbable comeback win to defeat the Bulls 4-3 as Barbare Eristavi clinched the match in an intense third set tiebreaker.

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"What an unbelievable college tennis match," second year head coach Ryan Tomlinson said. "We didn't play our best tennis today, but we won the match on guts. We lost five first sets, and to come back and win it the way we did says a lot about this team. I couldn't be more proud of the way they fought and competed through adversity. Fight On!"

WMU claimed what proved to be a crucial doubles point early on. After Buffalo won at No. 1, Eristavi/Gabriela Slavova earned a 6-4 win at No. 2 and Katja Fevralev/Denise Azcui earned the clincher at No. 3, also winning 6-4.

With WMU up 1-0, Buffalo came out extremely hot in singles, winning the first set at five of the six courts. The Bulls won three straight matches to take a 3-1 lead and were up a set on two of the three remaining matches. The Broncos' fate was in the hands of Tracy Kuhle at No. 3, Eristavi at No. 4 and Azcui at No. 5. Kuhle won her first set, then fell in the second, but came back to win the third 6-3 to put the pressure on the Bulls. Eristavi and Azcui each lost their first set, but both won the second to push their matches to a big third set. Azcui came back to defeat Anna Savchenko 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to tie the match at 3-3, with Eristavi left the finish. As both teams crowded around court four, Eristavi came up clutch for the Broncos, winning a third set tiebreaker 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) to give WMU the hard-earned win.

In its third straight win, WMU moved to 9-9 overall and 3-2 in the MAC. The Broncos will host Akron on Sunday, April 9 at 1 p.m. at Sorensen Courts/West Hills, depending on weather.