Nacogdoches, Texas – The most successful season in Central Arkansas tennis history game to an end on Saturday, as the seventh-ranked Sugar Bears fell 4-2 to third-ranked Northwestern State in the semifinals of the Southland Conference Tournament.

"I thought that we matched up well with Northwestern State," said UCA head coach Casey Wharton. "We knew that we needed to get the doubles point, and we did. We also needed to get a good start in singles play, and, unfortunately, we didn't."

Central Arkansas finishes the season with a 14-9 overall record, the most wins the Sugar Bears have ever collected in a single season. The team's 5-6 record in Southland Conference matches is tied for the most in a season.

Central Arkansas continued its dominance of the doubles point, which the Sugar Bears won 16 times on the season. Rada Manataweewat and QiLi Ma took the no. 3 match 6-0 over Barbora Kollarova and Alzbeta Veverkove to finish the season with a 17-5 overall record and an 8-3 mark in SLC play. Nataly Yoo and Amiru Shimoguchi then gave the Sugar Bears the point, taking down Natalya Krutova and Polina Ivanova 6-2 in the no. 1 match to end the year with an 8-6 overall record. The no. 2 match between Xylia Chunan Xiang and Marli Van Heerden and NSU's (13-10) Polina Mutel and Iryna Vardanian went unfinished with the Lady Demons holding a 5-1 lead.

"They came out fired up and aggressive and we were unable to capitalize on the momentum from the doubles point," said Wharton. "I feel like we had chances in some of the matches that we lost though, in tie breakers and third sets. If we had been able to get some of those to go our way, then we're playing for a championship tomorrow. We weren't though, which just shows what a thin line it is between playing for a championship and going home."

In singles play, NSU took the first two matches to take a 2-1 overall lead, as Mutel defeated Shimoguchi by a score of 6-2, 6-3 in the no. 3 match, and Krutova took down Yoo 6-1, 7-5 in the no. 1 match. Van Heerden evened the match at 2-2 in the no. 5 match, scoring a 6-1, 6-3 straight set victory over Kollarova.
Veverkova edged out Krizia Buck 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 in the no. 6 match, before Ivanova defeated Ma 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 in the no. 4 match to give the Lady Demons the win.

"Overall, I think that we're good enough to be in the championship match, and even win it," said Wharton. "Obviously it's never fun to go home, but I feel like we played well this season and there's a lot to be proud of. We'll take some time off to rest and recover, and we look forward to building on the good things we did this season in the ones to come."