CONWAY, Ark. – On a beautiful afternoon at the start of April, the Central Arkansas tennis team took a 6-1 win over the visiting Bellarmine Knights on Friday. After taking doubles in straight sets, the Bears captured five singles courts to claim victory over the ASUN opponent.
 
Facing an injury-depleted Bellarmine team, the Bears only needed one finish in doubles to claim the first point of the match, along with a guaranteed point on singles, as the Knights only fielded five for individual play. Central Arkansas made quick work of doubles, taking six-straight games on court two to round out the opening point of the bout.
 
Once in singles, courts two through five put up little resistance against the play of the Bears, while the lone point for the Knights came on a fiercely contested court one. After trading sets one and two, Chunxi Xin and Ekaterina Tikhonko went to the wire in the third, with Tikhonko taking a 9-7 third-set tiebreaker.
 
UCA 6, Bellarmine 1
 
Doubles
Chunxi Xin/Fuka Nonoyama vs. Tikhonko/Devillez DNF
Yada Vasupongchai/Mei Ishimura vs. Hargis/Kozerski 6-0
Maja Gledic/Sumomo Hamanaga vs. N/A DEFAULT
 
Singles
Xin vs. Tikhonko 6-2, 3-6, 0-1(9)
Nonoyama vs. Devillez 6-1, 6-0
Lee vs. Kozerski 6-0, 6-1
Vasupongchai vs. Varnum 6-0, 6-0
Humunaga vs. Hargis 6-0, 6-0
Gledic vs. N/A DEFAULT
 
The Bears are back in action on Sunday, playing Liberty at the UCA Tennis Courts. Gametime against the Lady Flames is set for 11 a.m.