Conway – The Central Arkansas women's tennis team was back in action on Sunday, playing just their second match in the last month. The Bears showed little rust however, handing the Southeastern Louisiana Lady Lions the first Southland Conference loss of the season, winning 4-3 at the Hendrix Indoor Tennis Center.
"Today was a great day for Central Arkansas women's tennis," said Bears head coach Casey Wharton after the match. "We had our first conference match at home, and the weather forced us to play indoors. I am so appreciative of Hendrix making their facility available to us. Their indoor facility only has three courts, so we knew it would be a long day because Southeastern is a really solid team. The good part about only having three courts and playing indoors though, is the energy. It was absolutely electric today, both sides were cheering loudly, going back and forth; it was awesome."
As they have done in every match except one this season, the Bears (6-1, 1-1 SLC) took the doubles point to grab an early lead. Kelsey Williams and Allison Murphy pushed their record to 7-0 on the year, taking down Lucia Bustamante and Dany Raygadas 8-0 in the no. 2 match, while Bianca Strukelj and Kristina Horsikyan improved to 5-1 with an 8-2 victory over Natalie Duran and Margaux Kaltenbacher in the no. 3 match. The no. 1 match between UCA's Nataly Yoo and Cassidy Crawford and SLU's Anna Bryhukhova and Renee Villareal went unfinished.
"We came out and won the doubles point, which was very important to gain momentum," said Wharton. "We have been practicing doubles a lot lately, and, to our girls' credit, they went out and executed very well."
During the first flight of singles play, the Bears pushed their lead to 3-1. Williams moved to 7-1 on the year with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Bryuhkova in the no. 2 match, and Horsikyan took down Bustamente 6-2, 6-3 in the no. 3 match to improve to 5-1 on the year. SLU (5-2, 2-1 SLC) got their first point of the day in the no. 1 match, when Yoo was forced to retire in her no. 1 match against Villareal.
\"We sent out our first singles matches, and Kelsey and Kristina has great wins in straight sets, which gave us a 3-0 advantage," said Wharton of the first flight. "I thought that SLU might have had enough wind taken out of their sails to let us finish the match, but they didn't."
In the second flight of singles matches, the Lady Lions tied the match at 3-3 with Raygadas defeating Crawford in the no. 5 match and Madina Vorotnikova defeating Amanda Alvarez in the no. 6 match. In the only match still going, Murphy came through for the Bears, taking down Kaltenbacher 6-2, 6-4 to secure the UCA win and move to 7-0 on the season.
"SLU fought back and won the no.1 match in three sets and took the first set in both the no. 5 and no. 6 matches," said Wharton. "But senior Allison Murphy stepped up and when needed today and clinched it for us. There was pressure to get the last point and confirm the victory, and she never wavered. It was a brilliant win today."
Central Arkansas will host New Orleans tomorrow at 10:00 AM.
