Belton, Texas - The Central Arkansas women's tennis team closed out the regular season on Thursday, meeting the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders for a neutral-site match in Belton, Texas. The Sugar Bears were unable to generate any momentum on the day, falling to the Islanders by a score of 7-0.

QiLi Ma and Rada Manataweewat opened the doubles contest on a high-note for Central Arkansas (14-6, 7-4 SLC) defeating Jelena Dzinic and Maria Maldonado 6-3 in the number three match for their 15^th win of the season and their eighth in nine Southland Conference matches, but the Islanders (14-6, 9-1 SLC) rallied to even the competition thanks to a 6-2 win from Marina Vincens Miquel and Louise Trigona at the twos. The number one match between Marli Van Heerden and Pornpawee Pramethong and TAMUCC's Hortense Boscher and  Luna Dormet went to the wire, but the Islanders would pick up a 7-5 win to secure the doubles point.

The singles contest opened with Manataweewat dropping the number six match 2-6, 2-6 to Carolina Bulatovic and Pramethong falling to Boscher 3-6, 3-6 in the top slot, before Amiru Shimoguchi fell to Trigona 2-6, 4-6 in the number four match. The Islanders would continue to control the match at the number slot, where Hee-Jin Oh fell to Dzinic 3-6, 2-6, and Ma dropped the number three match against Dormet 2-6, 5-7. Van Heerden was the only Sugar Bears to take a set on the day, falling to Miquel 4-6, 7-5, 5-10.

"Today was not our best, and some days are like that," said UCA head coach Casey Wharton. "My hope is that if we do get beat, that we get beat in a way that makes us better for the next match, and I'm not sure that we did that today. The good news is that we're still in the conference tournament and that means we have a chance to bounce back and finish strong. I believe that that's exactly what we'll do."

While Thursday marked the end of the regular season for Central Arkansas, the Sugar Bears will return to action on Friday, April 27^th, in the first round of the Southland Conference Tournament.