The 22nd-ranked Hope Flying Dutch extended their winning streak to nine-straight following a 7-2 victory over No. 30 Denison on Friday night at the Mitchell Fieldhouse in Granville, Ohio.

The first point of the match came at the top doubles flight where juniors Taylor Hawkins and Meg Chiumento took on the central region's top-ranked doubles team of Nancy Benda and Carli Capestany. The DU duo of Hawkins and Chiumento won the opening game to grab an early 1-0 lead. However, the team of Benda and Capestany recovered from the early deficit to win an 8-4 decision.

The Big Red tied the match at 1-1 when senior Heather Abzug and sophomore Emily Holloway earned an 8-5 victory over Anna Garcia and Marie Holaway.

With the match all square, freshmen team of Rochell Issa and Courtney Brown were looking to rally to give Denison its first lead of the day. Facing match point, Issa and Brown pulled within two at 7-5. However, Hope's Claire Cooper and Kelly Daniel held on for an 8-5 win.

In singles action, Brown picked up her first-career win over a regionally-ranked opponent when she defeated Cooper, who entered the match ranked 14th in the central region, at No. 2 singles. After suffering a 6-3 decision in the opening set, Brown rebounded with a dominating 6-1 victory in the second set. The third-and-final set was a battle between the DU freshman and the Flying Dutch junior. After splitting the first 12 points of the set, Brown earned the decisive point with a 7-4 win in the tiebreaker.

In the other regional clash, 18th-ranked Hawkins fell to eight-ranked Benda via tightly contested scores of 7-5, 7-6 in the first singles flight. The other three-set match came at the third singles where Capestany edged Chiumento (6-3, 5-7, 6-4).

Denison falls to 6-3 on the year, while Hope improves to 9-1. The Big Red returns to action on Monday when they travel to Wooster for a 4 p.m. match.