DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Winning matches shorthanded has been the thing all season long for Bethune-Cookman's women's tennis team. But if you want the story to have any staying power around here, one of the wins HAS to come against Florida A&M.

While not exactly legacy defining, Val Villucci can say that's how she pulled off her first win in the rivalry as the Lady Wildcats dispatched the Rattlers with a 5-2 Senior Day victory at City Island Tennis Center.

Bethune-Cookman (9-10 overall, 4-1 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) clinched the No. 2 seed from the Southern Division for next week's conference tournament in Norfolk, Va., with their seventh triumph of the year fielding just five players – meaning the Wildcats go into the  match already down a point and needing to sweep the two doubles matches to earn another.

No problem.

Yeah, it is kind of like Terry Sims winning the Florida Classic without a strong side linebacker or Vanessa Blair Lewis pulling a Gene Hackman in Hoosiers and playing only four in Tallahassee, but Villucci won't be pulling any smack talk at the staff meetings. She'll simply enjoy the win and this team's resilient run.

"I don't think they would appreciate that," Villucci smiled. "But I would let them know. This feels real good.

"Every time you think this team is down, they step up every time," Villucci added. "What we've done is not easy to do."

With Debora Echeverria already sidelined, Villucci thought she would have not have senior Mina Matsuba, battling an illness, at full strength and was even prepared to concede the double point.

Not only did Matsuba play doubles, she and Phatsimo Ruele erased deficits of 2-0 and 4-2 for a 6-4 victory that decided doubles and gave Bethune-Cookman the early lead and the momentum. Matsuba wasted little time in concluding her career against
Florida A&M (3-14,2-3)  unbeaten as an individual with her 69^th singles victory.

"She pushed through and took care of business," Villucci said of Matsuba.

"We weren't playing bad in doubles, we were just tight at first," Matsuba said. "We really needed that doubles point."

Up 2-1, everything else fell in line for the Lady Wildcats.

Junior Matea Roki concluded her undefeated run through conference play (5-0 in singles and doubles) with a win at No. 2 singles, her sixth straight and 12^th of the season.

With Alejandra Vidal temporarily delayed by dropping her first set, the deciding fourth point went to sophomore Karen Romero, whose 7-5,6-2 win over Karen Machisa at No. 4 was her best effort of the season, according to Villucci.

"It was nice to see Karen playing like that," Villucci said. "She was in command."

Vidal's three-set win over Dominique Henry at No. 3 concluded the B-CU scoring and gave the junior her fifth straight singles victory.