CONWAY, Ark. – The University of Central Arkansas tennis program grabbed a hard fought conference win early Friday afternoon. The Bears improved to 9-8 overall and 1-2 in conference play with an opportunity to get back to .500 in ASUN play on Saturday.
The Bears have certainly figured something out in doubles play after struggling early in the season, as they're now red hot and have seemingly starting each match up 1-0 recently. In Friday's match, the Bears dominated, as Vichitraporn Vimuktananda and Sumomo Hamanaga made quick work of the Colonels' No. 1 pair, winning 6-0. Soon after that, Seohyun Park and Konomi Miyakawa continued the Bears' dominance, winning 6-2 to seal the early point.
Nanoka Kazama started UCA off with a quick two set victory over the No. 2 singles player for EKU, setting the tone for the Bears. Vimuktananda had to come back from a deficit in each of her two sets, but found another gear to win fairly comfortably in each. Ting-An Chen earned her second singles victory of the week, with a chance to go a perfect 3-0 on Saturday against Queens. Perhaps the greatest singular effort was Harune Shigemasu, who had to fight to win two sets by tiebreak, a very gritty victory for the freshman.
UCA will continue conference play at home against the Queens Royals on Saturday, March 22nd at 11:00 a.m. To keep up with the Bears, follow @UCATennis on Twitter/X.
UCA 5 – EKU 2
Doubles:
Vimuktananda / Hamanaga vs. Polevoi/Cote 6-0
Kazama / Shigemasu vs. Bakytzhan/Fedenko 4-4 UF
Park / Miyakawa vs. Hill/Parkhomenko 6-2
Singles:
Vimuktananda vs. Fedenko 6-3, 6-3
Kazama vs. Parkhomenko 6-1, 6-2
Hamanaga vs. Cote 3-6, 7-5, 10-6
Miyakawa vs. Polevoi 6-4, 6-0
Shigemasu vs. Olcer 7-6 (7-0), 7-6 (7-5)
Chen vs. Bakytzhan 6-2, 6-3
