Beaumont, Texas – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears returned to action on Saturday morning, taking on the Lady Cardinals of Lamar University. UCA was unable to get much going on the day, however, falling to Lamar 5-2.

Lamar (7-5, 2-3 SLC) blitzed the Sugar Bears in doubles play, as Stephanie Marchena and Talisa Merchiers took the no. 3 6-1 from Amiru Shimoguchi and Krizia Buck, and Anna Spengler and Andrea Ivanovic defeated Xylia Chunan Xiang and Marli Van Heerden 6-2 in the no. 1 match. The no. 2 match between QiLi Ma and Rada Manataweewat
and Katya Lapayeva and Luciana Di Laura went unfinished.

"Today was a tough loss," said UCA head coach Casey Wharton. "Today wasn't our best performance in doubles play, but it wasn't due to a lack of effort. Lamar played hard and fast, and we struggled to get into the points."

In singles play, the Cardinals took the first two matches to push their lead to 4-0. Marchena opened singles play with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Rada Manataweewat in the no. 5 match, before Lapayeva took the no. 1 match 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 over Ma.

Central Arkansas (8-6, 3-4 SLC) rallied over the next two matches to pull to within 4-2. Buck defeated Di Laura 7-5, 6-4 in the no. 6 match, and Ma took the no. 3 match 6-0, 7-6 (9-7) over Ivanovic. That would be as close as the Sugar Bears got though. Merchiers defeated edged out Van Heerden 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 in the no. 5 match, while Lapayeva outlasted Xiang in the no. 1 match, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.

"The wind was blowing twenty, twenty-five miles per hour all day, and it was going to be tough for anybody to play their best tennis in those conditions," said Wharton. "We fought hard, and showed good energy, but some matches we were not able to keep our focus the entire time. We were trying to, but it was very difficult, and we let too many of the big points slip away. Credit to Lamar, because they played in the same conditions and beat us. Well done to Krizia and QiLi for getting a pair of good singles wins today. We will reset, and we will be better tomorrow."

Central Arkansas continues its four-match road trip tomorrow afternoon, travelling to Huntsville, Texas for a 1:00 PM match against Sam Houston State.