Waco, Texas – The Central Arkansas Sugar Bears had cause to celebrate on Thursday, despite falling to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 4-2. The Sugar Bears finished the regular season tied for second place in the Southland Conference, easily the best finish in program Division I history, while sophomore QiLi Ma set a new program record for wins in a season.

Ma and partner Rada Manataweewat got things started for Central Arkansas (19-6, 8-3 SLC) taking the no. 2 doubles match 6-2 over Hortense Boscher and Louise Trigona to finish the year with a 19-2 record and a 10-1 mark against SLC opponents, before Pornpawee Pramethong and Hee-Jin Oh gave the Sugar Bears a 1-0 lead in the match with a 6-3 win over Judit Vives and Jelena Dzinic in the no. 1 match. The win sees the pair close the season with a 5-5 record and a 4-5 record in conference play.

Trigona would get the Islanders on the board in the no. 4 singles match, taking down Amiru Shimoguchi 6-3, 6-1, before Dzinic scored a 6-2, 6-1 win over Oh in the no. 2 match to give TAMUCC the 2-1 lead. Ma would respond for the Sugar Bears however, picking up a 6-3, 6-4 win over Vives at the no. 3 spot to even the match at 2-2 with her record-setting win. The sophomore from Tainan, Taiwan closes out the regular season with a record of 19-3 overall and an 8-3 tally against SLC opponents. Manataweewat dropped the first set of the no. 6 match 6-1 before rebounding to win the second 6-4, but Marina Vincens Miquel secured the point for the Islanders with a 6-2 win in the third, before Marli Van Heerden was edged out by Maria Maldonado 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in the no. 5 match.

The loss drops the Sugar Bears into a tie for second place with Lamar (16-7, 8-3 SLC), who is also done with the regular season, which Abilene Christian (15-6, 7-3 SLC) and Stephen F. Austin (8-11, 4-6 SLC) will finish off on Saturday afternoon. A Wildcat win would make the tie for second place a three-way affair and cause the seeding for next week's Southland Conference Tournament to be decided by tie-breakers. The SLC Tournament, which takes place in Beaumont, Texas, is set to begin Friday, April 28^th.