RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech women's tennis team played their home-opener for the spring portion of their schedule on Wednesday afternoon against Harding in a non-conference match. Tech would win the dual over Harding 5-2.
The win for the Golden Suns (2-0) over the Lady Bisons (2-4) is the first for the program since the 2017-18 season. Harding had won the previous five matchups.
One of the keys to Wednesday's victory was the Golden Suns' play in doubles as they won all three matches.
The No. 1 pairing of
Daniela Baez and
Lea Grinberg got things started with a dominant 6-0 win over Harding's top pairing of Georgia Plunkett and Karli Roux. No. 2 doubles was next to come to completion and the duo of
Sofia Beggiatto and
Aastha Dargude beat Harding's Lina Romero and Jing Jing Yang, 6-3, to clinch the doubles point.
Doubles was played out and the No. 3 doubles pairing of
Madalena Amil and
Melanie Griffiths won the tiebreaker of their match to give them the 7-6(5) win.
The momentum of doubles carried over for the Golden Suns into singles action and Tech quickly took a 2-0 lead in the match as
Isabella Major won her No. 6 singles match against Rachel McCrae, 6-3, 6-3.
Harding then got their first point of the match at No. 3 singles as Roux knocked off Dargude, 6-4, 6-1. Grinberg then topped Grace Dodd at No. 1 singles, 6-4, 6-2, to put Tech up 3-1.
A lengthy match at No. 4 singles saw Harding secure their second point of the match. At that flight, Amil lost 6-7, 6-3, 10-12.
The final two singles matches also went to a third set, but this time it was the Golden Suns who emerged victorious in the tiebreak.
Beggiatto at No. 5 clinched the match for Tech as she won 4-6, 7-6(5), 10-4. Baez at No. 2 followed that with a win 6-3, 7-5, 10-4.
The Golden Suns will now prepare for a short trek east on I-40 for a doubleheader match against Division I UCA. First-serve for the first match is scheduled for Noon. First-serve for the second match will occur about 30 minutes following the conclusion of the opening match.
