Huntsville, Texas – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears continued a four-match road trip on Sunday afternoon, hitting the road for Huntsville, Texas to battle Southland Conference foe Sam Houston State. Play was close all day long, but the Sugar Bears earned a 6-1 win over the Bearkats.

Sam Houston State (6-8, 1-4 SLC) grabbed an early lead in doubles play, as Fabienne Gettwart and Mila Milanovic earned a 6-3 win in the no. 1 match over Marli Van Heerden and Xylia Chunan Xiang, but QiLi Ma and Rada Manataweewat edged out Ema Barkovic and Carrie Casey 7-5 in the no. 2 match to even the doubles competition. Krizia Buck and Amiru Shimoguchi gave the Sugar Bears (9-5, 4-4 SLC) the doubles point, taking the no. 3 match 6-2 over Caitlyn Mitchell and Maddie Mortimore.

In singles play, Central Arkansas took five of the six matches, thought the scores were closer than the final indicates. Xiang took the no. 1 match in straight sets by a score of 6-4, 6-4 over Gettwart, and Ma picked up a 6-3, 6-1 win over Barkovic in the no. 3 match. Shimoguchi won a hard-fought first set 7-6 (7-2) before coasting to a 6-1 second set win to take the no. 2 match from Casey, while Van Heerden dropped the first set of the no. 4 match 0-6, before rebounding to take the second and third sets by identical 6-2 scores to down Milanovic. Buck dropped the opening set of the no. 6 match 4-6 to Mitchell, before taking the second 7-6 (7-5) and the third 1-0 (10-4).

SHSU got their lone point of the day in the no. 5 match, where Mortimore defeated Manataweewat 7-5, 6-2.

Central Arkansas steps out of SLC play for a pair of matches next week. The Sugar Bears will head to San Marcos, Texas to take on Texas State at 2:00 PM on Tuesday, before wrapping up their road trip with a neutral-site match against Texas Rio Grande Valley in Austin, Texas at 11:00 AM on Friday.