North Little Rock, Ark. –
The Central Arkansas tennis team opened the 2013 season by facing off with in-state rivals Arkansas State and Arkansas-Little Rock on Thursday. The Bears were unable to pick up a win, however, falling 5-2 to UALR in the morning, and 6-1 to Arkansas State in the afternoon.
Against UALR, Central Arkansas got wins from the two-spot in singles competition, where sophomore Allison Murphy defeated Viktoriya Plyuta 6-4, 6-4; and in the doubles competition where the Bears took two of the three matches.
The match opened with doubles play, where UALR’s Yana Kakovkina and Viktoriya Plyuta defeated Krizia Buck and Allison Murphy 8-7 in the first doubles match. UCA responded well, as Simona Horsikyan and Sasha Ruocco took second doubles from Michaela McShane and Veronique Luksich by a score of 8-7, and Kristina Horsikyan and Anna Buyukyan defeated Dane Vorster and Christel Amsallem 8-6 to give Central Arkansas the 1-0 lead.
The Trojans tied the match at one following the number one singles match, as Luksich defeated Simona Horsikyan 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 to know the score at 1-1. Murphy’s victory gave the Bears the 2-1 edge, but Central Arkansas was unable to pick up another victory. Kakovkina defeated Buck 6-4, 6-2, Vorster took down Kristina Horsikyan 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, Kamilla Galieva defeated Ruocco 7-6 (7-3), 6-1, and McShane defeated Stephanie Gonzalez-Valero to close out the match.
In the afternoon match against Arkansas State, Central Arkansas found themselves down 1-0 after doubles play. Ioana Teu and Janie Nowland defeated Murphy and Buck 8-6, while Tamara Slijepcevic and Bijana Miloshevska took an 8-2 victory off of Simona Horsikyan and Ruocco. Buyukyan and Kristina Horsikyan defeated Sofia Krsmanovic and Jess Heeps-Eriksen 8-6 in the final doubles match.
In singles play, the Red Wolves quickly added two more points as Slijepcevic and Nowland each took a 6-2, 6-2 victory off of Simona Horsikyan and Murphy, respectively. Miloshevska took a hard-fought 7-6 first set in her match against Kristina Horsikyan, and then breezed through 6-0 second set. Buck gave the Bears their only point of the match, as she defeated Teu 6-3, 6-2 in the fourth singles match, but the Red Wolves refused to let up, as Chiara Stefanov defeated Ruocco 1-6, 7-6, 10-7, and Heeps-Eriksen took down Buyukyan 1-6, 6-2, 11-9.
Central Arkansas returns to the court on Saturday, when they visit Louisiana Tech at 1:00 in Ruston, Louisiana. They then face off with Grambling State on the same courts. On Sunday, the Bears travel to Monroe, Louisiana to square off against Louisiana-Monroe at 1:00.
