NORFOLK, Va. – Bruna Goncalves' three-set victory at No. 4 singles broke a 3-3 tie and gave Norfolk State women's tennis a 4-3 win over visiting Delaware State in the team's MEAC opener.
 
In the final match of the day, the sophomore from Governador Valadares, Brazil fought off Alina Polyvana in the third set after splitting the first two, 6-2, 2-6. Leading 5-4 in the third, Goncalves broke serve to win 6-4, with the match point coming via a double fault by Polyvana.
 
With only four active competitors, the Spartans (2-5, 1-0 MEAC) had little margin for error. NSU dropped the doubles point to fall behind 1-0, which forced Norfolk State to sweep all four contested singles matches.
 
Norfolk State defaulted at No. 3-seeded doubles, but the pairing of Dajana Cvjetkovic and Paula Fortuno defeated Cassandra Boltan and Sofia Rachi, 6-4 in the top-seeded flight to keep the doubles point in play. The Lady Hornets (3-2, 0-1 MEAC) took the point with a 6-4 victory by Alina Polyvana and Anastasia Belkrina over Ana Popovic and Goncalves.
 
DSU collected two more points in singles play via defaults at the fifth and sixth-seeded flights.
 
The Spartans' rally began in the top-seeded singles match, where Cvjetkovic dispatched Boltan in straight sets, 6-2, 6-0. Fortuno followed suit with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Rachi in the No. 2-seeded flight.
 
Popovic recorded a two-set sweep of Belkrina in the third-seeded match to set up the late-match drama. The Belgrade, Serbia native won 6-4 in the opening set and won the race to seven points in the second-set tiebreaker to win 7-6 (5).
 
NSU returns to the courts in a week's time when they travel to Howard for its first conference road match on March 31 at 1 p.m.