Springfield, Mo. – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears played a pair of matches on Sunday. The Sugar Bears opened the day with a come-from-behind, 4-3 win against Missouri State, before suffering their first defeat of the season in a 4-1 loss to Louisiana Tech.
Against Missouri State (4-6), Central Arkansas (9-1) found itself in a hole following the conclusion of the doubles segment.
Xylia Chunan Xiang and
Amiru Shimoguchi gave the Sugar Bears an early edge, picking up a 6-1 win over Abbey Belote and Alexia Meyer at the no.3 slot, but the maroon Bears evened it up as Ekaterina Donetskova and Fati Khamissi took down
Marli Van Heerden and
Pornpawee Pramethong 6-3 in the no. 1 match. MSU would go on to earn the doubles point, when Alye Darter and Phoebe Boeschen handed
QiLi Ma and
Rada Manataweewat their first loss of the season with a 6-3 win at the no. 2 position.
The maroon Bears would put themselves in position to take the match with a pair of wins early in single play. Darter would earn a 6-1, 6-4 win over Pramethong in the no. 1
match and Anelisse Torrico would win the no. 3 match 0-6, 6-3, 6-3 over
Hee-Jin Oh to put MSU up 3-0. The Bears would stave off defeat in each of the next four matches though, rallying for the win. Xiang got things started, taking a hard-fought no. 2 match 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-1) over Khamissi, and Ma picked up a second point for the Sugar Bears with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Boeschen in the no. 4 match. Van Heerden swept Meyer 6-0, 6-0 in the no. 6 match, before Shimoguchi clinched the victory in the no. 5 match, taking down Donetskova 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.
In the day's second match, the Sugar Bears again dug themselves a hole in the doubles portion. Ma and Manataweewat rebounded with a 6-1 win over Sonia Chen and Marta Sramkova to move to 7-1 on the year, but the Lady Techsters evened things up in the no. 1 match, where Jazmin Britos and Alba Escalona Perny took down Pramathong and Van Heerden 6-3. Louisiana Tech would eventually earn the early edge, as Nadja Manjon and Jill van den Dungen edged out Shimoguchi and Xiang 7-5 in the no. 3 match.
As with the match against Missouri State, UCA would find itself with a 3-0 deficit after Britos scored a 7-5, 6-3 win over Pramethong at the no. 1 spot and Sramkova narrowly defeated Shimoguchi 7-6, 7-5 at the no. 4 slot. Van Heerden got the rally started with a tight 7-6, 7-6 victory over Perny in the no. 5 position, but that would be all the Sugar Bears could muster, as Dungen took the no. 6 match 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 over Manataweewat to snuff out the comeback attempt.
Central Arkansas returns home for a pair of matches next Sunday. The Sugar Bears will open Southland Conference play at 11:00 AM against Abilene Christian before taking on in-state opponent Arkansas State at 4:00 PM.
