TAMPA- The No. 15 University of South Florida women's tennis team returned to action on Friday when the Bulls hosted No. 48 Rice University at the USF Varsity Tennis Courts. The Bulls topped the Owls 4-3.

Senior Lauren Shumate and redshirt sophomore Janette Bejlkova started things out for the Bulls on Friday with a win in their No. 2 doubles match against Jessica Jackson and Daniella Trigo. Things were tied 1-1 before Shumate and Bejlkova won the next seven games to pick up the 8-1 win over Jackson and Trigo.

Senior Jessica Zok and junior Natalia Guevara took on Rebecca Lin and Rebekka Hanle in the No.3 doubles position. Guevara and Zok fell to Lin and Hanle 8-2.

With each team having won one doubles match it would all come down to the No. 1 doubles match to decide who would have the 1-0 advantage heading into singles action. No. 16 Junior Irene Rehberger and senior Melissa Koning took on No. 68 Julie Chao and Ana Guzman in the No. 1 doubles spot and both teams gave it everything they had.  After falling behind 6-5, Rehberger and Koning fought back and made it 7-6. Rehberger and Koning went up 8-7 before letting Chao and Guzman win the next game to once again tie things up 8-8. Rehberger and Koning fell to Guzman and Chao in the tiebreaker game and that gave Rice the 1-0 lead heading into singles competition.

Koning started out singles competition for USF with a win. Koning took on Chao in the No. 2 singles position. After falling in the first set 6-2, Koning fought back and won the next two sets 6-3, 6-3. That tied things up between the two teams.

Bejlkova kept the momentum going for the Bulls in her No. 3 singles match against Jackson. Bejlkova topped Jackson in the first set 6-4 but fell in the second set 6-4. Bejlkova fought back in the third set, though, and downed Jackson 6-4. That gave the Bulls a 2-1 lead over the Owls and that was their first lead of the day.

Guevara earned the Bulls third point of the day in her No. 6 singles match against Daniella Rosch. Guevara beat Rosch in two straight sets 7-5, 6-3. That gave the Bulls a commanding 3-1 lead over the Owls.

Zok competed in the No. 5 singles spot against Lin. Zok fell 6-2 to Lin in the first set but fought back and won the second set 6-1. In the third set, Lin downed Zok 6-2.

No. 41 Rehberger took on No. 104 Hanle in the No. 1 singles position. Rehberger fell to Hanle 6-4 in the first set.  In the second set Rehberger fell behind 6-5 but came back and tied the set 6-6. Hanle went on to pick up the next two games, though, which gave her the 8-6 second set victory. That once again tied things up between the two teams.

With each team having three points each, it would come down to the No. 4 singles match to determine who would walk away with the win. Freshman Ecaterina Vasenina took on Guzman in the No. 4 singles spot. After beating Guzman 6-1 in the first set, Vasenina fell in the second set 6-4. In the third set Vasenina went up 5-2 before letting Guzman battle back and make it 5-5. Vasenina continued to hang tough, though, and she went on to win the next two games which gave her the 7-5 third set victory. The win gave USF the 4-3 victory over Rice.

With the win, USF improves to 10-4 on the season. The Bulls will be back in action on Sunday when they host the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams. The match is set to start at 11 a.m.