When the 14th annual Creative Energy Women’s Night Doubles turned into a windy University of Hawaii scrimmage Saturday, senior Xenia Suworowa and freshman Cindy Nguyen were up for the challenge.

The Rainbow Wahine’s top-ranked doubles team survived a late scare from teammates Martina Kostolova and Sarah Gealer to take the title at Kailua Racquet Club, 6-1, 7-5.

The tournament began with a record 25 teams. Kostolova and Gealer, seeded fifth, took out top-seeded Marika Kobayashi and Marietta Tuinetoa in the quarterfinals. Monday, both Brigham Young-Hawaii players were ranked in the top 26 nationally in NCAA Division II.

The UH team also got past the eighth-seeded high school team of Alyssa Tobita and Katie Kim, who have four state high school titles between them.

They had few answers for the second-seeded Suworowa and Nguyen, however, at least for the first hour.

The opening set lasted 25 minutes and Suworowa and Nguyen, blasting balls from all angles, were up a break early in the second. They were serving for the match at 5-4 when Gealer saw folks bringing the trophies out.

"I’m like, it’s not over," said Gealer, a sophomore who just transferred in from Maryland. "We’re coming back on these guys."

They did, forcing the champs to serve for the match twice.

"It’s tough to stay focused throughout the entire match because it’s a long game," Suworowa said. "On my part, I lost my focus a little and lost my calm a little. My partner did a good job in keeping me focused. Sometimes it has to be the young one."

Kostolova, from Slovakia, was playing in her second straight Night Doubles final. She and Suworowa, from Berlin, both played a part on the Wahine’s 2012 WAC championship team.

Nguyen, a two-time high school champion from Long Beach, Calif., just arrived in Manoa and has already made her way to No. 1 doubles, where she has found a kindred spirit.

"Her backhand is wicked amazing," Nguyen said of her new partner. "And she’s very, very good at the net. She’s a ninja."

In the third-place match, Kim and Tobita had their serve broken in the opening game, but caught fourth-seeded Kahala Companion and Katarina Poljakova at 6-all and won the pro set 9-7.

Tobita, a Mililani senior, will play for Oregon in the fall. Before that, she will try to become only the second player in Hawaii history to win four state high school singles championships. Kim, a Punahou senior, was a state doubles champion in 2012.

Poljakova, who was awarded the Sportsmanship Award in her fifth Night Doubles appearance, was the only non-student in the final four teams and collected $150.