HOUGHTON, N.Y. -- Senior Lauren Carr earned the decisive singles point Friday with a thrilling three-set triumph as top-seeded Nazareth held off fourth-seeded Houghton for a 5-4 victory in the semifinals of the Empire 8 Conference championship tournament for women's tennis.

The Golden Flyers, 8-1 overall, shoot for their second straight Empire 8 title and third in the last five seasons, on Saturday at 1 p.m. against second-seeded Hartwick.

Nazareth defeated Houghton, 7-2, in a regular-season match at Nazareth back on Oct. 1, but the going was tougher this time around as the Highlanders secured two of the three doubles points before winning points at fourth and sixth singles.

That left the outcome of the match in the capable hands of Carr, who split the first two third singles sets with Houghton's Marilynn Amborski 6-1, 4-6. Carr then trailed 3-0 in the third set before rallying to win 6-4. Senior Caroline Breitweiser also came up big for Nazareth at fifth singles as she split the first two sets with Houghton's Maddison Soth before taking the third set 6-3.

For Nazareth Aliya Guzman and Claire Pullen combined for an 8-1 win at first doubles, but Houghton gained a 2-1 lead with close wins at second and third doubles. At second doubles, Houghton's team of Soth and Chloe Esch edged Nazareth's tandem of Carr and Lily Bulkeley 8-7, which included a 7-5 tiebreaker. At third doubles, Nazareth's Gwen Burns and Theresa Hecht lost 8-5 against Amborski and Tessa Brown of Houghton.

In singles, Guzman and Pullen were straight-set winners at first and second singles respectively, but Houghton stayed close as Esch defeated Bulkeley 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 at fourth singles and Brown topped Nazareth's Katelyn Spath 6-3, 6-3 at sixth singles.

Carr and Breitweiser then came through in their respective matches to lift the Golden Flyers to Saturday's championship match. The winner of Saturday's match gains an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament, which will be contested in May of 2022.