CONWAY – The Central Arkansas tennis team will take their first step toward replicating its historic 2019 campaign on Sunday morning as they will open 2020 season play with a doubleheader against the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles at 10 a.m. and ITA's #11 ranked Oklahoma State Cowgirls at 2 p.m.
 
The Bears will face both teams at the Greenwood Tennis Center in Stillwater, Oklahoma, an indoor facility on the Cowgirls campus that hosted the opening round of the NCAA Tournament last May. Central Arkansas will look for greater success during its second visit as they fell 4-0 to Oklahoma State to conclude their second 20-win season in three years.
 
THE BEARS ROSTER AT A GLANCE
 
Head Coach Casey Wharton will look to his young core led by 2019 SLC Freshman of the Year Chunxi Xin for success in 2020 as the team said goodbye to three key seniors last year. The four returners comprised of junior Yada Vasupongchai and sophomore trio of Xin, Mei Ishimura and Fuka Nonoyama combined for a 53-29 (25-13 SLC) mark in singles play and 18-6 (8-1 SLC) record in doubles play last spring.
 
Freshman Maja Gledic will look to carry over her strong fall showing as she grabbed multiple impressive wins, including sweeps over opponents from the University of Arkansas and Saint Louis University at the 2019 ITA Regional Championships last October.
 
MEET THE ORAL ROBERTS GOLDEN EAGLES
 
The Oral Roberts Golden Eagles reside in Tulsa, Oklahoma and will welcome the Mercer Bears today for their season opener before facing the Bears of Central Arkansas tomorrow. The Golden Eagles will look for career win No. 2 against Central Arkansas as the Bears hold a 5-1 head-to-head record.
 
After a disappointing 6-18 2019 season, the Golden Eagles were picked second in the 2020 Summit League Preseason Poll and collected one first-place vote. The team is led by a veteran-heavy group compiled of three seniors and two juniors, including junior Anna Riedmiller that was a 2018-19 All-League recipient after a 17-2 mark in singles play and 14-5 finish in doubles.
 
Senior North Texas transfer Ivana Babic made the All-C-USA Second Team in doubles last year and turned in an 11-4 finish in singles play while freshman Oleksandra Nahurska will be another name to watch for as she ranked No. 9 in girls 18's rankings in Ukraine before joining the Golden Eagles.
 
MEET THE OKLAHOMA STATE COWGIRLS
 
The Oklahoma State Cowgirls reside in Stillwater, Oklahoma and will face the Bears after a doubleheader of their own today against SLC-foe Abilene Christian Wildcats and the Wichita State Shockers. The Cowgirls were picked second in the Big 12 Preseason Poll behind Texas and landed at No. 11 in the 2020 ITA Division I preseason rankings. The team is loaded with nationally-ranked talent as three players landed in the latest top 100 singles ITA rankings and two doubles pairs landed in the top 40.
 
Junior Lisa Marie Rioux earned the highest ranking at No. 16 after being crowned the ITA Central Regional champion in both singles and doubles last fall. Rioux defeated Nonoyama in the NCAA Tournament 6-1, 6-4. Sophomore Bunyawi Thamchaiwat made a significant leap from No. 67 to No. 29 after a strong showing at the ITA National Fall Championships that saw a finish in the round of 16.
 
Freshman Ayumi Miyamoto landed at No. 92 in singles and joined Rioux in the doubles rankings at No. 17 after winning the ITA Central Regional doubles title last October. Thamchaiwat and freshman Dariya Detkovskaya were placed at No. 39 after falling to teammates Rioux and Miyamoto in the Central Regional final.
 
HEAR FROM HEAD COACH CASEY WHARTON
 
"I am excited about this season for several reasons. We've got so many great players from last year that are coming back along with the addition of (freshman) Jaeun Lee who is eligible now and will have an immediate impact.  We're still trying to figure out the doubles and the lineup of where everybody will fit, and that's part of the excitement of early spring matches.
 
ORU has gotten better every year and we'll need to be very focused with them. Oklahoma State was good last year and for as long as I can remember. We'll need to play our very best to have a chance against them. Two matches in one day can sometimes be hard, but our goal is to get better at things that are hard."
 
KEEP UP WITH THE BEARS
 
You can follow both season-opening matches on Sunday afternoon with links found here. Follow the Bears on Twitter @UCATennis for in-match updates and all things women's tennis.