DURHAM, N.C. — The North Carolina Central University women's tennis team won four of its five contested singles matches to overcome an early 2-nil deficit and defeat Longwood University, 4-3, on Friday afternoon at the NCCU Tennis Courts.
 
Freshman Maria Picazo (Madrid, Spain) clinched the victory in the final match of the day. A couple other freshmen in Jade Houston (Raleigh, N.C.) and Josefa Fernandez (Santiago, Chile) started NCCU's comeback with their own singles wins before junior Ivana Dragovic (Novi Sad, Serbia) leveled the match at 3-3 with her singles triumph.
 
NCCU improved to 1-4 on the season while Longwood dipped to 1-3.
 
The Lancers were able to take the early lead with the Eagles forfeiting No. 3 doubles and No. 6 single because of an injury. A 6-0 win on court two clinched the doubles point for Longwood.
 
Houston and Fernandez won their doubles bout for the maroon and gray on the first court. It was the first victory for that tandem.
 
All four of NCCU's singles wins were in straight sets.
 
Houston was the first player to get in the win column with her 6-3, 6-2 triumph at the third position in NCCU's lineup. Houston defeated sophomore Maria Saez for her first collegiate singles win.
 
Fernandez ended her match just minutes later, topping freshman No. 2 Adelaide Thuilot by a 6-4, 6-1 margin.
 
Longwood regained a brief 3-2 team lead with a No. 1 singles win by junior Emma Nurgazieva over senior Maru Berghaus (Cologne, Germany).
 
Dragovic leveled the score again at the fourth position in the hosts lineup. Dragovic defeated junior Crystal Nzewi by matching 6-4 set scores for her first win of the season.
 
Picazo completed NCCU's singles rally with the most convincing win of the day. Picazo only lost three games on the way to her to 6-0, 6-3 conquest of freshman No. 5 Zoe Barton.
 
Fernandez and Picazo lead the Eagles with matching 2-3 singles records.
 
NC Central will next host Western Carolina University on Sunday at noon.