BEAUMONT, Texas – The Lamar University women's tennis team put up a strong fight but was unable to overcome a slow start falling to Central Arkansas, 5-2, Sunday afternoon at the Thompson Family Tennis Center. The loss dropped the Cardinals to 3-12 (.200) on the season and 1-5 (.167) in Southland Conference play.
The Cardinals played three sets to a tiebreak, and had one court go to a third set in a match that took just over three hours to complete.
"We obviously struggled in doubles play today, but I'm proud of how the girls didn't allow that to affect them in the singles," said LU head coach
David Wong. "I thought we really fought hard on all the singles courts today, but we had some struggles on court No. 4. Overall, we are a young team, but we can't fall back on that as an excuse. At some point you stop being young and have to figure out a way to win even when you're not at your best. We haven't figured out how to do that yet."
Central Arkansas took less than 30 minutes to score the first point of the match. The Sugar Bears surrendered a total of two games to LU in the three matches to take the early 1-0 lead. Despite the quick exit in doubles, the Cardinals didn't retreat but focused on singles.
The Sugar Bears won the first two singles matches of the afternoon to take a 3-0 lead, but they were tough battles on each court. UCA's Pornpawee Pramethong handed the Sugar Bears a 2-0 lead with her victory at No. 1 singles, but she escaped the opening set by edging out the Cards' Sanja Jolic in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (7-1), before posting a 6-3 score in the second for the point.
The Cardinals broke through on court No. 6 when freshman Milena Belianovich defeated UCA's Rada Manatawewat in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5. The match score would remain 3-1 for nearly an hour as neither team was willing to surrender a point. UCA managed to walk off the court with the clincher on court five. Freshman Natalia Garcia Molina picked up a 6-1 victory in the opening set over the Sugar Bears' Marli Van Heerden, but UCA rallied in the second set. Van Heerden recorded a 7-5 decision in the second set to force a third. UCA's Van Heerden took the final set, 6-2, to hand UCA the victory.
The Red and White scored their final point on court No. 2. Sophomore Jasmin Buchta won a long, two-set match that saw her have to go to a tiebreak in both sets to get the decision. In the end, Buchta defeated UCA's Hee-Jin Oh, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-3).
The Cardinals return to action Saturday when they travel to Huntsville, Texas to take on Sam Houston State. The match against the Bearkats is slated to being at 11 a.m.
-LU CARDINALS-
