RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – It has been a long time coming, but the Arkansas Tech women's tennis team will return to the courts and open their 2021 spring season on Sunday, January 31 in St. Joseph, Mo. where they will play a pair of matches, one against Southwest Baptist at 9 a.m. and the second against Missouri Western at 2 p.m.
When they do take to the courts, it will have been 327 days since they last competed as their 2020 spring season was canceled due to the onset of the COVID-10 pandemic and their subsequent fall 2020 season was canceled due to the ongoing effects of the pandemic.
Prior to the abrupt end of their 2020 season, the Golden Suns were 6-6 overall and were yet to play a conference match. In singles action, the Golden Suns were 70-48 and were an impressive 39-10 in doubles play.
This year, the Golden Suns are picked to finish fourth in the GAC and will have the benefit of six players returning from a year ago.
Among those returning is their primary top-flight player in
Michelle Khoo. Last spring, Khoo played in 10 of the 12 dual matches and played in flight one in all 10 of those matches. She was also on the Golden Suns top doubles flight and paired with
Aastha Dargude. That duo would go on to post an overall 9-1 doubles record and were 8-1 as the top-flight in dual matches.
In addition to the return of Khoo and Dargude, the Golden Suns return
Daniela Baez,
Megan Bell,
Isabella Major and
Alejandra Sanchez. The Golden Suns also bolstered their roster with addition of Division I transfer,
Lea Grinberg.
Leading the Golden Suns once more is head coach
Abby Davis as she enters her 17th year as head coach at Tech. In her previous 16 years leading the Golden Suns, Davis has amassed a 187-141 career record in dual matches. Under her direction, the Golden Suns have also won three regular-season conference championships, one conference tournament championship and advanced to a pair of NCAA Regional Tournaments.
