Hammond, La. – The Central Arkansas women's tennis team opened the road portion of its Southland Conference schedule on Saturday, travelling to Hammond, Louisiana to take on the Southeastern Louisiana Lady Lions. The Sugar Bears and Lady Lions battled hard at every positon, but UCA eventually fell 4-3.

For the first time in four matches the Sugar Bears (7-4, 2-2 SLC) failed to win the doubles point, as the no. 3 team of QiLi Ma and Rada Manataweewat were the only UCA pairing to win their match, defeating SLU's Margaux Kaltenbacher and Dany Raygadas 6-1. Amiru Shimoguchi and Nataly Yoo dropped the no. 1 match 6-2 to Dalina Dahlmans and Renee Villareal, while Marli Van Heerden and Xylia Chunan Xiang fell in the no. 2 match 6-3 to Lucia Bustamante and Ceci Mercier.

Central Arkansas battled back in singles play, as Xiang took the no. 2 match 6-2, 6-0 over Dahlmans and Ma earned a 6-1, 6-1 win over Bustamante in the no. 4 match. Van Heerden gave UCA its final point, with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Mercier in the no. 5 match.

Yoo dropped the no. 1 match to Villareal by a score of 6-1, 6-4, and Shimoguchi fell 7-6, 6-1 to Raygadas in the no. 4 match. Manataweewat fell in the no. 6 match 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 to Madina Vorotnikova.

"Today we did not come up enough on the big points to get the win," said Central Arkansas head coach Casey Wharton. "I felt like we gave ourselves a number of opportunities, and put ourselves into good positions to win, but, in the end, we just came up short too many times. I have to give credit to Southeastern Louisiana for their win, becauste they stepped up and made it happen."

The Bears return to action tomorrow at noon, taking on the New Orleans Privateer.