Little Rock, Ark. – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears opened their Southland Conference schedule on Sunday morning, welcoming McNeese State to the indoor tennis courts at Burns Park in Little Rock. The Sugar Bears fought hard on the day, with three of the singles matches going to three sets, but ultimately fell to the Cowgirls 6-1.

Central Arkansas (3-3, 0-1 SLC) grabbed an early lead in doubles play, as Xylia Chunan Xiang and Marli Van Heerden defeated Klaudia Gawlik and Hannah Brett 6-2 in the no. 2 match. The Cowgirls (7-4, 1-0 SLC) would rally though, when Nataly Yoo and Amiru Shimoguchi dropped the no. 1 match 6-4 to Giovanna Fiorett and Sarah Jurakova and QiLi Ma and Rada Manataweewat fell 6-4 to Julia Kral and Charoline Erlandsson in the no. 3 match.

In singles play, Yoo dropped the no. 1 match 3-6, 6-3, 5-7 to Gawlik, while Xiang fell 5-7, 2-6 to Fioretti in the no. 2 match. Ma lost the no. 3 contest 3-6, 6-3, 4-6 to Kral, but Shimoguchi got the Sugar Bears on the board with a 5-7, 7-6, 10-5 win over Jurakova in the no. 4 match. Van Heerden fell in the no. 5 match 1-6, 2-6 to Brett, before Manataweewat dropped the no. 6 match 6-4, 3-6, 2-6 to Erlandsson.

Central Arkansas hits the road for a pair of matches next weekend, travelling to Carbondale, Illinois for a match with Southern Illinois on Saturday. The Sugar Bears will then take on Arkansas State on Sunday.