Asheville, N.C. – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears closed out their opening weekend road trip in against the UNC-Asheville Bulldogs. UCA dropped the doubles point and overcame a slow start in singles play to defeat Asheville 5-2.

The doubles point was hotly contested, with two of the three matches going to a tie-break. Central Arkansas (2-0), got a win at the no. 3 slot, as QiLi Ma and Rada Manataweewat defeated Amalie Davidsen and Hunter Hall 7-6 (3), but Asheville (1-1) got a tie-break victory of its own in the no.2 match, as Chistin Louw and Lauren Watson Steele edged out Hee-Jin Oh and Marli Van Heerden 7-6 (4). A 6-2 win by Hanna Francisco and Kylee Shipley over Pornpawee Pramethong and Amiru Shimoguchi in the no. 1 spot locked up the point for the Bulldogs.

"They were a really great team," said UCA head coach Casey Wharton. "They've got a great coach, their doubles play was excellent and we easily could have lost this match. We were winning in all three matches, but couldn't finish it out. I feel like we're very good at doubles, and it's something that we're confident at, but they just took it from us."

Knowing they needed a strong showing in singles play, the Sugar Bears overcame a hot start from Asheville in the first four matches. Pramethong earned her first singles win as a Sugar Bear in the no. 1 slot, dropping the first set to Francisco but rallying for a 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 win, while Amiru Shimoguchi overcame a 2-5 deficit in the first set of the no.2 match to defeat Shipley 7-5, 6-2. The Bulldogs got their lone singles victory in the no. 3 match, as Watson defeated Oh 6-2, 6-4, before Ma closed out the first round of singles matches with a 6-3, 7-5  victory in the no. 4 match.

"I was down two to five, and was having a hard time getting anything going because she was hitting a very hard ball and I was late on it," said Shimoguchi of her match against Shipley. "But as I started to get more comfortable, I was able to start hitting a heavier ball and make the points longer, and when I did that I was able to take control of my match."

The second round of singles play saw Central Arkansas wrap up the win with two more victories. Van Heerden scored a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Davidsen in the no.5 match, while Manataweewat battled to a 7-5, 3-6, 1-0 (10-5) win over Hall in the no. 6 match.

"There were only four courts, so Marli and Rada had to wait," said Wharton. "In the four matched that were playing, we were actually losing all four, so it was looking pretty dark for a while. That wasn't because we were playing poorly, Asheville just got off to an incredibly strong start. I have to credit our girls for waiting for their chances, and making the most of those chances to flip the matches around. Pornpawee dropped her first set, but was dominant the rest of the way, and Amiru was down two to five and responded very well. Marli closed out the win, and I'm very proud of the way that Rada played today. She played some of the best tennis I've ever seen from her and she found a way to win."

The Sugar Bears open the home portion of their schedule with a pair of matches next Saturday. UCA will host Southeast Missouri State at 10:00 AM, before welcoming in-state rival Arkansas State at 2:00 PM.