RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech women's tennis team put forth a valiant effort at home against No. 34-ranked Harding on Friday afternoon, but fell just short to the Lady Bisons, 4-3.
The hard-fought loss was the first for the Golden Suns as they fell to 2-1 in league play. The Golden Suns still have two more conference matches left on their regular season schedule. On the other end, however, Harding concluded their conference schedule and remained unbeaten to clinch the out-right regular season championship.
In the match, Harding jumped out to an early 1-0 lead as they grabbed the doubles point with wins at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles. With the doubles point decided, the top-flight match between
Lea Grinberg /
Daniela Baez and Allison Carpenter / Grace Dodd was left unfinished and tied at 4-all.
In singles action, the Golden Suns snagged the first two points with
Madalena Amil's 6-2, 6-3 win at No. 4 and
Aastha Dargude's 6-4, 6-1 win at No. 3. Harding then evened the match at two-all with a close win at No. 6 singles.
The swing point favored Harding as the Lady Bisons won a tie-breaking third set at No. 5 singles. The same outcome followed shortly after at No. 2 singles as the Lady Bisons won that match to clinch the team match.
Playing out the rest of singles, Grinberg ended the match on a high note for the Golden Suns as she won in a tie-breaking third set. Her top-flight singles match with Grace Dodd went 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-1.
The Golden Suns will now turn their attention towards their final home match of the year against No. 43-ranked Southeastern Oklahoma. The match was originally-scheduled for an 11 a.m. start on Saturday, but was rescheduled to the following Wednesday at 2 p.m. due to forecasted rain in Russellville on Saturday.
