KAILUA — By sundown, it was obvious another team from Brigham Young-Hawai'i would win the sixth annual Lanikai Bath and Body Women's Night Doubles yesterday. It took a senior pre-med student to figure out which one.

Guriana Korinihona and Petra Teller poached their way to a large lead, lost most of it, then came back from the brink in the second set to defeat Seasider teammates Tetyana Bula and Yulia Ustyuzhanina, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4), at Kailua Racquet Club. It was the fifth time a BYUH team has taken this title.

Korinihona, a senior who plays the No. 1 position for the Solomon Islands Federation Cup team and plans to go to medical school after graduation, dictated much of the match. Her quickness and comfort at the net lifted her team to five straight games as she and Teller, a sophomore from Budapest, cruised through the first set and blew to a 5-1 lead in the second.

Bula and Ustyuzhanina, both from the Ukraine, have known each other since they were 10. They knew not to panic. They were seeded first and coming off a Rolex national doubles championship this fall. They won their country's nationals despite being down a set and 1-5. "It's not a big thing for us," Bula shrugged.

After an uninspired first set, they fought through their funk and frustration in a few foreign languages. They lost just three points in three games to pull within 5-4, as Ustyuzhanina began to find the range from the baseline and Korinihona slowed her poaching pace.

"I got a little tired," the senior said with a guilty grin. "When they started coming back I lost my offense."

She and Teller earned a match point on Ustyuzhanina's serve, but missed converting by inches. Ustyuzhanina and Bula both followed with winners to make it 5-all, then broke Korinihona's serve at love to take their first lead.

They were up 40-15 in the next game, but lost the first set point when Teller, content to rip from the baseline most of the night, drilled a winner down the line. After another long cross-court rally, Bula netted a backhand.

The unseeded champions took the next two points — Korinihona coming up with a spectacular get on the first, then poaching the second — to force the tiebreaker.

"When we were down 15-40," Teller said, "we didn't care about losing at all."

The combination of Teller's backboard skills — "She gets all the balls back," Korinihona said — and the senior's speed and instant offense made the difference in the tiebreaker. It was tied at 4 until Korinihona hit two more winners from on top of the net tape, and Ustyuzhanina netted match point.

Neither team knew quite what to do when it was over. All four are friends and Teller and Bula played doubles together last year. "We enjoy playing them," Bula told the crowd of about 300. "We do play them. Every day."

NOTES

The semifinals, postponed by Friday's rain, were played at 4:30 p.m. yesterday. Korinihona and Teller finished off second seeds Betsy Somerville Purpura and Laura Glitz, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. The Seasiders won the first set and were up in the second before the rain came Friday. Bula and Ustyuzhanina beat former University of Hawai'i No. 1 Lauren Fitzgerald and Mimi Kennell, 8-6, in the other semifinal, shortened to a pro set.

Fitzgerald and Kennell, who played for Taiwan's Fed Cup team, beat Purpura and Glitz, 8-5, in the third-place match.

Purpura won the tournament's Sportsmanship Award last night.

The tournament raised more than $4,000 for Castle Medical Center Women's Center. The event had a $2,500 purse, but none of the finalists could accept cash because of NCAA regulations.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.