Conway – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears made their first home appearance of the season on Saturday, welcoming the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks to the UCA Tennis Courts. The Sugar Bears pushed their winning streak to three straight matches, taking down SEMO 6-1.

Central Arkansas (3-0) got an early edge in the doubles competition, as QiLi Ma and Rada Manataweewat improved to 3-0 on the year with a 6-1 win at the no. 3 spot. SEMO (1-1) evened it up when Kseniya Zonova and Anais Emelie took the no. 2 match 6-3 over Hee-Jin Oh and Marli Van Heerden, but Amiru Shimoguchi and Pornpawee Pramethong took the no. 1 match 6-5 over Isabella Krupa and Oleksandra Doroshenko to give the Sugar Bears the doubles point.

"I told the girls that today wasn't necessarily about playing well, but that it was more about playing hard and playing smart because nobody would be playing their best today due to the weather," said UCA head coach Casey Wharton. "I felt like we did a good job of doing that. QiLi and Rada are just playing so well right now, and they put us up early. Hee-jin and Marli played very hard, but were unable to pull it out at the number two spot, but Amiru and Pornpawee stepped up and clinched it for us, which was a big deal because SEMO is a strong team."

In singles play, Ma again gave the Sugar Bears a lead, defeating Annisa Warasanti 6-0, 6-0 before the Redhawks got their loan point of the day in the no. 2 spot, where Doroshenko took down Shimoguchi 6-2, 6-2. Pramethong continued the rout in the no. 1 spot with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Krupa, and Van Heerden secured the victory by defeating Mila Majtan 6-3, 6-2 in the no. 5 spot. Oh earned a 6-2, 6-4 win over Zonova in the no. 3 spot, and Manataweewat wrapped things up with a  4-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10-8) defeat of Emelie in the no. 6 match.

"In singles we got ahead and stayed ahead in almost every match," said Wharton. "I was really proud of Amiru, because she was playing hurt and has missed some practice, but the fact that she was able to gut it out and play anyway was very encouraging. And I'm very proud of all of the girls, because of how cold it was."

Central Arkansas will take next weekend off, before opening a five-match road trip with a pair of matches in Murray, Kentucky on February 11^th. The Sugar Bears will take on Southern Illinois at 9:00 AM, before facing off with Murray State at 2:00 PM.