HOUSTON, Texas — Marshall’s No. 3 doubles team of Dana Oppinger and Karlyn Timko persevered through a rain delay — and a change of venue — to take an 8-5 win to lead the No. 7-seeded Thundering Herd to a 4-3 win over 10th-seeded Houston Thursday at the Conference USA championship.

The Herd will now face 24th-ranked (in the Intercollgiate Tennis Association’s Top 75) Golden Hurricane of Tulsa — the tourney’s No. 2 seed — on Friday in a 3 p.m. (2 p.m. CT in Houston) quarterfinal match.

In a back-and-forth match, the home standing Cougars and the Herd traded singles matches with Houston’s Rocio Martin Fernand posting a 6-1, 6-0 win over MU’s Maria Voscekova at No. 3 singles.

Meanwhile, Marshall’s Kara Kucin leveled things with a 6-3, 6-1 win at No. 5 singles.

Marshall pulled ahead with a win by Ellie Ball at No. 4 singles, only to see Houston square the match at two when No. 1 singles player Elena Kordolaimi rallied to win in three sets over Marshall’s No. 1, senior Dominika Zaprazna.

HUNTINGTON — As homecomings go, this one was really out of the blue … and kelly green.

Michaela Kissell-Eddins, one of the most successful players in Marshall Tennis history, returns to campus on Friday.

That, she expected when she took a close-to-home job as Pitt’s assistant coach last year.

What she didn’t expect when the Thundering Herd (8-9) and Panthers (8-6) meet here Friday at 2 p.m. was to be guiding the Big East Conference program in its last season in that league against her former coach, MU veteran John Mercer.

Back on Jan. 7, Kissell-Eddins was named Pitt’s interim head coach, after the sudden retirement of George Dieffenbach — who had guided the Panthers’ program to more than 500 victories in more than three decades.

She had been with the program only since mid-November.

Kissell-Eddins’ husband — former Huntington High State champion and fellow MU alumnus Jacob Eddins — is now the Panthers’ interim assistant coach.