Arkadelphia, Ark.- The Central Arkansas tennis program dominated with ease as they put together a nearly perfect day in the doubleheader sweep of Ouachita Baptist.
From the beginning, everything seemed to fall in place for the Bears as they only lost one match as the rest of the points scored by the Tigers were due to automatic victories. Other than that, the day entirely belonged to UCA as they fought off their Division II foe on their home turf. One of the highlights to showcase was freshman Sumomo Hamanaga as Hamanaga made her debut at the No. 1 spot and excelled in every fiber. She completed a 4-0 day, which included two wins against the OBU's No. 1 hitter. She dominated with two quick sets the first time around, 6-3, 6-2, before going into the second leg of the doubleheader. In the second match, it was closer as it came down to a ten-point tiebreaker where she eventually won with the final scores of 6-2, 6-7(3), 10-7.
A few other players that had a big outing were freshman Nicole Ross and sophomore Paulina Engback. Ross got her second victory, and Engback escaped a winless season to grab two against the Tigers. Overall it was an excellent afternoon for the Bears as they had a nearly perfect outing in a matchup that had to be moved around due to weather.
UCA 5 OBU 2
Doubles:
No. 1 Gledic/Hamanaga vs. Turner/Crocker 7-6
No. 2 Ross/Ishimura vs. Gaston/Valenzuela 7-6(2)
No. 3 N/A vs. Davilus/May
Singles:
No. 1 Hamanaga vs. Turner 6-3, 6-2
No. 2 Gledic vs. Crocker 6-2, 6-2
No. 3 Ross vs. Gaston 3-6, 6-4, 10-8
No. 4 Ishimura vs. Valenzuela 6-0, 6-3
No. 5 Engback vs. May 6-1, 6-3
No. 6 N/A vs. Davilus
UCA 6 OBU 1
Doubles:
No. 1 Hamanaga/Gledic vs. Crocker/Davilus 6-3
No. 2 Ross/Engback vs. Valenzuela/Hansard 6-1
No. 3 N/A vs. Gaston/May
Singles:
No. 1 Hamanaga vs. Crocker 6-2, 6-7(3), 10-7
No. 2 Gledic vs. Valenzuela 6-0, 6-0
No. 3 Ishimura vs. Graston 6-3, 6-0
No. 4 Ross vs. Davilus 6-2, 6-2
No. 5 Engback vs. Hansard 6-2, 4-6, 10-8
No. 6 N/A vs. Williams
Next, UCA will come back home to battle at the UCA Tennis Courts. They will faceoff against Louisana-Monroe at 2 p.m. on March 5, in Conway.
Quote from head coach Casey Wharton:
"We had some matches that fell through this weekend, and so we were looking for someone to play this weekend. I was really excited that Ouachita was able to play, and we were hoping to play them at home, but with the weather being what it was, we wanted to play indoors; and Ouachita had indoor courts, so it was an easy decision to come play them at their place. Overall we were just happy to be competing and some of the players on the team needed rest this weekend, but the ones that were going to play were excited to use this as an opportunity to get better. I was really proud of those that came out here and didn't waste a moment. I thought we did really great things today, in both the first and second match. My hope is to use this to build to get better for the conference matches in a couple of weeks. So game on and go Bears."
