NACOGDOCHES — It came down to the final two singles matches Saturday and junior Karla De La Luz Montalvo and freshman Sunskrithi Damera came up clutch to lead the Sam Houston tennis team to a 4-3 victory over Stephen F. Austin at the Schlief Tennis Center.
 
The win kept the Bearkats a perfect 8-0 in Southland Conference play and 13-2 overall. Sam Houston has a key match against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Tuesday in Houston at 1 p.m.
 
Trailing 3-2 after SFA (8-9, 2-7 SLC) rattled off three straight wins at Nos. 4, 5 and 3 singles, De La Luz Montalvo tied the match in the No. 2 spot. She lost the first set to Nyah Kauders 4-6 then took control of the match 6-3, 6-4 to improve to 10-5 on the season.
 
The match all came down to No. 6 singles, and it was only fitting to was close. Damera held off Elena Bleicher 7-6, 7-6, 7-4 to seal the victory.
 
Junior Sahaja Yamalapalli continued her impressive run with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Paula Cerda at No. 1 singles. She is now 14-0 this spring.
 
Yamalapalli also teamed with freshman Sahithi Vutukuru to clinch the doubles point with a 6-4 victory over Zala Ule and Ai Noa Fabre in No. 1 doubles play after De La Luz Montalvo and sophomore Petra Kaszas took down Lucy Furness and Elena Bleicher 6-1 in the No. 3 position.