THIBODAUX, La.: The University of Central Arkansas (7-7 SLC 2-0) continued their hot streak as they posted a strong outing in their first road conference dual.
UCA won all but one of their matches against Nicholls (2-6 SLC 0-3) and continued to carry their torch of success as they have now won seven of their last nine duals.
Doubles:
The Bears showed out in their doubles portion of the match as they continued their recent string of grabbing the doubles point. UCA has won all of their matches this year when they claim that point, and this dual was no different. The Bears finished in chronological order as the No. 1 team finished first and then-No. 2 and No. 3.
Sophomore Chunxi Xin and Fuka Nonoyama started the route as they won their match in clean sweep fashion 6-0. Following them was junior Yada Vasupongchai and sophomore Mei Ishimura with a 6-3 finish. Lastly, the doubles section's best match happened as freshmen Maja Gledic and Jaeun Lee bested their opponents in extra play to finish out 7-6.
Singles:
After dismantling her opponents last week, Gledic continued her tirade as she took it with an easy 6-1, 6-1 finish. Nonoyama continues to push her elitism this year as she went on to best her opponent in a similar fashion with the same 6-1, 6-1 finish. The trend only continued for the Bears as they clinched the match with a unique score as Lee won her match in the No. 4 spot 6-1, 6-1.
While the other two Bears that won their matches didn't win with the same score, they battled in their own right to add to UCA's point total. Those two players were Xin and Vasupongchai. They played closer matches, and for that reason, they put on a stellar show for the Colonel crowd. Since the match had already been won, the third set would automatically be played to 10. Xin was the player to make use of this rule as she faced off in a three-set comeback victory. Xin initially lost the first set 6-4 but came back 6-3 in the second before closing it out 10-5. Vasuponchagchai would be the last to finish up as she went extra time in the first set and won it in two 7-5, 6-3.
Up next, the Bears will travel northeast as they head to New Orleans to take on the Privateers Sunday at 11 a.m.
Quote from Casey Wharton:
"It is exciting to be in conference and being able to get two matches on the road in, and I think today is the transition from going indoors to outdoors. We wanted to do two things, control our energy and control our routine. We knew our timing would take some time to feel good playing outside. Overall, everyone played as well as they could, knowing this was our first match outside. We are going to rest up tonight and get ready for UNO, which is going to be another tough match."
