Conway – The Central Arkansas tennis team opened its final home weekend of the 2017 season on Saturday, playing host to the University of New Orleans in a battle between two of the Southland Conference's best teams. The Sugar Bears rolled on the day, taking down the Privateers 6-1.
UNO (13-7, 5-4 SLC) took the early edge in the doubles competition, as Trang Dao and Brittney Johnson defeated
Marli Van Heerden and
Amiru Shimoguchi 6-1 in the no. 3 match, but
Pornpawee Pramethong and
Hee-Jin Oh evened up the pairs contest with a 6-3 win over Anna Segarra Rius and Anja Luethi, moving to 2-4 on the year in the process. As they have all season long,
QiLi Ma and
Rada Manataweewat proved to be a solid anchor for the Sugar Bears (16-5, 5-2 SLC), securing the doubles point with a 6-4 defeat of Claudette Gilhespie and Yasmine Rashad to move their record to 15-2 on the year and 6-1 in SLC play.
"We didn't have as much energy in doubles as I would have liked," said UCA head coach Casey Wharton. "It took us a little bit to get started, with our energy and effort, but we eventually found our rhythm. I was proud of Hee-Jin and Gammy at the number one, they're still a new doubles team, but they had a very good win today, and then Rada and QiLi have just been a really strong team all year long. I thought going into those matches, the doubles point would be really important, because New Orleans is very strong at one, two, and three, so getting in front would be key."
Manataweewat got things started in singles play, scoring a 6-1, 6-1 win over Paula Garriga to push the UCA lead to 2-0 and make her record 12-6 overall and 5-2 in SLC play. Shimoguchi followed by defeating Yasmine Richard 7-5, 6-1 in the no. 4 match to improve to 13-8 on the year and 5-2 against league opponents. Van Heerden then clinched the match for the Sugar Bears, taking down Johnson 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 to move to 14-4 on the year and 5-1 against SLC foes.
Ma followed that up with a 6-4, 7-6 win over Gilhespie at the no. 4 slot to push her record to 16-2 overall and 5-2 in SLC play, before Pramethong fell to Dao 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the no. 1 match. Oh finished things out with a win in the no. 2 match, taking out Luethi 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 to improve to 7-10 on the season.
"We got the doubles point, which we were excited about, but we also thought we would need to do well at the bottom of the lineup, and we did." said Wharton. "I was very proud of QiLi, because she wasn't feeling very well today, but she battled through it, and I was very, very proud of Rada. She's not only playing well right now, but she's playing with a lot of confidence right now, and it's very obvious. She's been our first singles point many times this year, and I'm very proud of her for that."
"I was really pleased that we were able to get the win in the way that we did, picking up six points, not only because New Orleans is a really good team, but because the way the conference is shaping up this year, there's a good chance that tie-breakers are going to be involved, so it's good to have win's like this."
The Sugar Bears wrap up the home portion of their schedule tomorrow, hosting Southeastern Louisiana at 11:00 AM.
