SEARCY, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech women's tennis team played Harding for the first time this season on Thursday in a non-conference match at Harding. Tech would collect wins at No. 1 and No. 4 singles as well as No. 3 doubles, but ultimately came up short in the match, 5-2.
 
The victory at No.3 doubles started the match for the Golden Suns (2-4) as the pairing of Megan Bell and Melanie Griffiths beat the duo of Allison Jenkins and Emily Carpenter, 6-4. Tech dropped the match at No. 2 doubles and the top-flight doubles combo of Lea Grinberg and Daniela Baez (ranked No. 48 nationally) were narrowly edged out to give Harding the doubles point in the match.
 
The Lady Bisons (8-3) then jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the match with singles wins at No. 5 and No. 6.
 
Madelena Silva's 6-3, 6-0 win at No. 4 singles got the Golden Suns on the board.
 
Harding then clinched the match victory, however, with a win at No. 2 singles.
 
The match played on to the end and Grinberg picked up another big singles win over a nationally-ranked opponent. In her previous match, Grinberg took down then-ranked No. 43 Ewa Samberger of Drury. Against Harding on Thursday, Grinberg beat recently-ranked No. 62 Grace Dodd, 6-1, 6-2.
 
Following Grinberg's match, Baez narrowly dropped her No. 3 singles match with Lina Romero. Baez lost the first set, 7-5, but bounded back to win the second set 6-4. In the tie-breaker, Baez lost 10-7.
 
The Golden Suns will now return home for a match against Missouri Western on Friday morning. First-serve is scheduled for 11 a.m. out at the Chartwells Women's Sports Complex. Missouri Western will come into the match with an unblemished 6-0 record to start the spring.