The doubles point was a battle, but the Crimson Tide grabbed the crucial games when needed. At No. 3 doubles, the UH tandem of Jordan McCombs and Vicky Simpson had Tiffany Welcher and Merritt Emery knotted at 6-all before losing 8-6. The No. 1 doubles duo of Lucy Forward and Izabella Glinska dropped an 8-4 decision against Paulina Bigos and Andrea Brenes, giving the point to Alabama and rendering the No. 2 doubles match moot, thus ending as retired by Leila Salek and Lynley Wasson.
"Even though (Alabama) is not ranked," UH head coach John Severance said, "they beat two tough SEC teams this past week and will probably be ranked very soon. We were forced to go indoors, and that turned into a much sided home-court advantage for them.
"It was very tight in doubles play, and we had several chances at 6-all in No. 3 doubles but couldn't come up with the big shot. We had a good match at No. 2 singles but we were beat in straight sets in the other singles matches.
"We'll just have to re-focus and get ready to play tomorrow against Samford. They are a very solid team and it should be a very difficult match to win."
The singles match pointed out by Severance was Salek's battle at No. 2. After taking the first set 6-2, Alabama's Bigos rallied for a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over the UH senior.
The remaining five singles matches were straight-set defeats. Forward fell 6-0, 6-3 to Welcher at No. 1; Glinska was bounced by Alice Tunaru, 6-3, 6-1 at No. 3; Emery downed Simpson 6-4, 6-0, at No. 4; Wasson dropped a 6-1, 6-3 decision at No. 5 to Shelley Godwin; and Joanna Kacprzyk lost 6-0, 6-4 to Brenes at No. 6.
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