Conway – A day after defeating the 2015 Southland Conference regular season champion, the Central Arkansas tennis team completed a sweep of 2015 SLC Women's Tennis Champions on Sunday, taking down last season's tournament champion, Northwestern State, by a score of 4-3 on Sunday.

The match was incredibly hard-fought all day, with neither team able to gain an advantage until the final singles match was decided. Northwestern State's (1-7, 0-1 SLC) Natalya Krutova and Polina Ivanova took the no. 1 doubles match by a tally of 6-2 over UCA's Nataly Yoo and Amiru Shimoguchi, before Xylia Chunan Xiang and Marli Van Heerden evened the doubles portion at 1-1 with a 6-2 win over Polina Mutel and Iryna Vardanian. With the doubles point on the line, Rada Manataweewat and QiLi Ma came through for the Sugar Bears, securing the no. 3 match with a 6-3 win over Barbora Kollarova and Ilijana Ivic.

In singles play, UCA extended its lead as Yoo scored a 6-2, 7-5 win over Krutova in the no. 1 match. Mutel then got the Lady Demons on the board in the no. 3 match, defeating Ma 6-3, 6-4, before Ivanova evened the match at 2-2 with a  6-3, 1-6, 6-1 win over Van Heerden in the no. 5 singles match.

Northwestern State then put the pressure on, taking a 3-2 lead on the day when Veverkova won the no. 6 match 6-4, 6-3 over Manataweewat.

Amiru Shimoguchi continued her nearly-perfect start to the season, improving to 9-1 and tying the match at 3-3 with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 over Kollarova.

With both sides looking on, the pressure fell on Xiang and Vardanian in the no. 2 match. Xiang took the first set, 6-4, but Vardanian forced a third set with a 6-4 win of her own in the second. Xiang gave the Sugar Bears the win though; taking the third set 6-3.

Central Arkansas hits the road for a pair of SLC matches next weekend. On Saturday, the Sugar Bears will battle Southeastern Louisiana at 11:00 AM, before taking on New Orleans at 11:00 AM on Sunday.