Conway – The Central Arkansas women's tennis team opened its home slate in style on Saturday afternoon, sweeping the Harding University Lady Bisons at the UCA Tennis Courts.
"Today was our first home match, against Harding, who replaced a good friend of mine, Marco Ruiz, after last season," said UCA head coach Casey Wharton. "I was very interested to meet their new coach, David Redding, and I can honestly say that I now have the greatest confidence that Harding will continue to be a great team under his watch."
The Sugar Bears (2-1) rolled through doubles play, taking all three matches to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
Nataly Yoo and
Amiru Shimoguchi took down Piper Huey and Laura Golubic 6-2 in the no. 1 match, before
Marli Van Heerden and
Xylia Chunan Xiang scored a 6-3 win over Gabriella Alves and Brittany Smyser in the no. 2 match.
QiLi Ma and
Rada Manataweewat closed out doubles play with a 6-0 win over Arielle Butler and Emily Faulkner in the no. 3 match.
"I know that Harding is a team that has given us problems in the past, and they are a team that we knew that we could not take lightly," said Wharton. "I credit our girls, because they came out ready to compete from the first point. They played high-percentage tennis in doubles, making first serves and returns, and I think there is so much value in getting the point started. We took that momentum into singles and ran with it."
UCA continued its dominant performance in singles play, taking all six matches in straight sets. Yoo took down Huey 6-1, 6-2 in the no. 1 match, and Xiang defeated Golubic 6-0, 6-0 in the no. 2 match. Ma matched that feat in the no. 3 match, defeating Alves 6-0, 6-0, before Shimoguchi scored a 6-2, 6-3 win over Smyser in the no. 4 match. Van Heerden took the no. 5 match 6-0, 6-1 over Butler, before Manataweewat ended the match with a 6-1, 6-1 defeat of Lexi Beaver in the no. 6 match.
UCA returns to action tomorrow afternoon, 1:00 PM, hosting the Warhawks of the University of Louisiana at Monroe at the UCA Tennis Courts. "Tomorrow will be a much greater test against ULM, but for the moment we will enjoy the win from today."
