CRESTVIEW HILLS, Ky. – Rheanna Moreheart made things exciting for the Northern Kentucky University women's tennis team on Friday night, taking her singles match over Southeast Missouri State's Kateryna Stoianova in an 8-6 third-set tiebreaker to give the Norse a 4-3 win to open up the spring season.
 
"I'm very proud of our ladies' effort tonight," said head coach Brian Nester. "We have a tough stretch of matches coming up this week, so it was very important for us to come up with a win tonight. The ladies fought to the last point and came out on top."
 
The Norse started things off on the right foot, taking the doubles point on the strength of victories in the No. 2 and No. 3 flights. Danielle Donahue and Morehart teamed to defeat SEMO's Melissa Martin and Kateryna Stoianova, 6-2, while Nicole Soutar and Sydney Power claimed a 6-3 victory over Anna Makhneva and Annisa Warasanti.
 
Donahue at No. 4 singles and Sierra Nellessen at No. 6 picked up early breaks in their first sets, though their matches went in very different directions. Donahue cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 win over Makhneva, while Nellessen dropped a 7-5 tiebreaker to Martin in Set 2 before falling in the deciding set, 6-3.
 
Power surged the Norse to a third point with a 6-1, 6-0, win over Viviana Ortiz before Mariya Kostyuk took the top-flight match for SEMO over Hailey Shanahan, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, to take the action to the final two singles matches.
 
After dropping Set 1 in a tiebreak, 7-5, Soutar came back to tie her match with Warasanti with a 6-3 second effort. The Redhawks dealt the final blow, however, taking the third set, 6-3 to set up Morehart's heroics.
 
The Norse, now 1-0 on the season, move on to a rough stretch of matches in the early part of the season. NKU will travel to Louisville to take on the Cardinals on Sunday before heading to Lexington on Tuesday to face Kentucky. The Norse return home on Saturday, joining the men's team to host Dayton at Five Seasons Sports Club. First serve is set for 6 p.m.