SURPRISE, Ariz. – Gritty singles performances under extreme heat advanced No. 7 Northeastern State into the Elite Eight for the first time since 2004 with a 5-1 win over No. 39 Indiana (Pa.).

High temperatures at the NCAA women's tennis championships reached 104 with on-court highs reaching above 120 for student-athletes.

The RiverHawks much like the weather, got off to a blazing start with its two and three doubles teams winning 8-1.  On the main court, Mayra Jovic and Karla Tomaic went into a drag-on match but they came up short, 9-8 (8-5) in a tiebreaker.

Despite the loss on their top-doubles spot, Northeastern State took its first lead in 14 years in the Round of 16.

In singles play, the lower-ranked Crimson Hawks worked the RiverHawks over with four courts going into a third set.  Molly Worden was off the court first for NSU taking a 6-4, 6-2 win on court-three. 

Nearly 45 minutes would pass until another court fell Northeastern State's way.   At that point, the RiverHawks were split on sets leaving the door open for IUP. 

Freshman Chantal Nosievici was the lone exception and battled from behind to take a 7-6 tiebreaker in the first set.  The tiebreaker would prove to be important later in the match.

In a seesaw battle on court-six, Tomaic rallied to win in three sets 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 to push NSU to its match point.

But that time, the pendulum swung back to NSU and were rolling on its top-two courts in the third set. 

Quietly, Nosievici was nearing the match win on court-four and won her second 7-6 tiebreaker to advance the RiverHawks into the Elite Eight.

The RiverHawks have advanced four times in its program's history (1999, 2003, 2004) but have not made it further.  Additionally, the win over IUP (20-6) moved Northeastern State (20-4) to its 15th 20-win season since 1997.

Northeastern State's next opponent will be No. 3 Columbus State on Wednesday at 6 p.m. (CT).