RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – After a 4-2 regular season in Great American Conference play, the Arkansas Tech women's tennis team earned the No. 3-seed in the upcoming GAC Tournament and will take on No. 6-seed Ouachita in the first round on Friday, April 23.
The Golden Suns, who won at least 10 matches for the 12
th time under head coach
Abby Davis, have played against Ouachita twice this season already and have won both matches. The first meeting was a non-conference affair that the Golden Suns swept 7-0 in Arkadelphia. The second meeting was a GAC match played in Russellville, and the Golden Suns surrendered just one point to the Tigers.
Ouachita enters the tournament as the No. 6-seed and punched their ticket to the conference tourney for the first time since 2017 thanks to a 5-2 win over Oklahoma Baptist in the regular season finale.
The Golden Suns will be relying on a trio of recently-named All-GAC performers in
Aastha Dargude,
Lea Grinberg and
Daniela Baez. Dargude and Grinberg were named to the First Team in addition to being named the league's Freshman of the Year and Newcomer of the Year, respectively, while Baez was named to the Second Team.
Those three players are slated to be the top three singles competitors for the Golden Suns at the tournament with Grinberg playing at flight one, Dargude at flight two and Baez at flight three. Baez and Grinberg are slated to remain doubles partners where they are 9-4 together this year, but will play at the top-flight for only the second time while Dargude will be at flight two with a new doubles partner in
Megan Bell.
The winner of the match between Tech and Ouachita will move on to the tournament semifinals and will play against No. 2-seed Southeastern Oklahoma later that day.
