Conway – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears faced off with one of the hottest teams in the league on Sunday afternoon, playing host to the Lamar Cardinals. The Sugar Bears, who were battling numerous injuries on the day, fell by a final score of 5-2 as the Cardinals pushed their winning streak to six matches.
Central Arkansas (13-5, 2-2 SLC) continued the strong play that has been a hallmark of its season so far, grabbing an early lead by winning two out of three matches in the doubles competition.
Amiru Shimoguchi and
Marli Van Heerden gave the Sugar Bears an early edge in the doubles contest, taking down Jasmine Buchta and Hanna Elfving 6-0 to improve their record to 3-0 on the season, before Katya Lapayeva and Anna Spengler took down
Pornpawee Pramethong and
Hee-Jin Oh 6-2 to even it up.
QiLi Ma and
Rada Manataweewat wrapped up the doubles point though, moving to 12-2 on the year and 3-1 in SLC play with a 6-3 win over Talisa Merchiers and Stephanie Marchena.
In singles play, an injury forced Central Arkansas to forfeit the no. 6 match, evening the score, before Ma took down Buchta 7-6 (4), 6-2 to make her record 13-2 on the season. From that point forward the Sugar Bears and Cardinals locked in a battle, with the remaining four matches all going to three sets. Shimoguchi dropped the first set of her no. 4 match against Sanja Jolic 3-6, but rebounded to win the second 6-4 before ultimately falling 2-6 in the decisive third set. Pramethong also fell behind in the no. 1 match, dropping the first set 4-6 to Lapayeva, before taking the second 6-4. The UCA freshman then dropped the final set 3-6. The no. 5 match saw Manataweewat take the first set 6-4, before Merciers took the second 6-2 and the third 6-4 for the win, while in the no. 3 match, Oh took the first set 7-5 from Spengler before dropping the next two sets 6-4.
Central Arkansas hits the road for a short two-match road trip next weekend. The Sugar Bears will take on Nicholls at 11:00 AM on Saturday before squaring off with McNeese at 11:00 AM on Sunday.
