AUBURN, Ala. – It did not take long for the University of Central Arkansas tennis team to warm up to 2019 (even with the recent "arctic blast" moving into Conway). The Bears opened the campaign with a 7-0 sweep over Alabama A&M Saturday morning and followed it up with a 4-1 win over Mercer in the nightcap to kickstart the season with two early victories.
UCA 7, ALABAMA A&M 0
It was a dominant showing in the morning contest for UCA. In the six singles matches, the Bears only dropped one set combined and controlled the action across the board. Rada Manataweewat earned the first individual win of the season for Central Arkansas, defeating the Bulldogs' India Wood 6-1, 6-1. Fuka Nonoyama, QiLi Ma, Marli Van Heerden and Yada Vasupongchai also tallied straight-set victories. Mei Ishimura dropped her opening set before storming back for a commanding 2-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory.
In the doubles portion of the competition, the duo of Van Heerden and Nonoyama dominated Alabama A&M's Anita Bozkho and Rida Khalid by a 6-1 margin to earn the doubles point. Ishimura and Vasupongchai were equally as dominate as they cruised to a 6-1 victory themselves. The Ma/Manataweewat pairing needed a few extra games, but ultimately earned a 6-3 win to give the Bears a 7-0 clean sweep for the match.
UCA 4, MERCER 1
The night match against Southern Conference-foe Mercer was a bit more of a challenge for UCA, but not anything the seasoned Bears could not handle. Ma and Manataweewat opened the scoring with an easy 6-1 win over Christie Cesarini and Anna Sovic. Ishimura and Vasupongchai moved their doubles record to 2-0 with a 6-4 win while the Van Heerden/Nonoyama pairing needed a 7-6 (6-4) tiebreak victory to remain perfect.
Manataweewat defeated Mercer's Sovic 6-3, 6-3 in singles to earn the first singles point of the match. Ishimura quickly followed with a 6-2, 6-2 straight-set victory over Marie Mottet. Ma took down Alara Holyfield 7-5, 6-4 to ultimately clinch the match for Central Arkansas and propel their record to 2-0. Van Heerden dropped a 7-5, 6-2 decision to Mercer's Celine Schepers to earn the only point for the losing squad. Nonoyama and Vasuponchai did not complete their singles matches since the Bears had already clinched the victory.
"Today was long and hard, but it was also very exciting," said UCA head coach Casey Wharton. "We played two matches against two solid teams, and I was so proud of our effort. It was the first match of the year and it's always different starting a new season, so winning the first match or two is such a positive feeling because it can help set the tone for the rest of the semester.
I am most proud of how we were able to do in our matches what we have been practicing. We wanted to be disciplined and positive routines and be intentional with everything we do, even if the result is not what we hope for. And I think overall we did that today in both matches.
We will go out again tomorrow and hopefully keep building on what we started today. Go Bears."
UP NEXT
UCA will step up in competition and take on host, Auburn, tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. Live stats for tomorrow's match are available by following the link at the top of the page.
