RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech women's tennis team came away with a big 4-3 win against Southern Arkansas on Tuesday afternoon out at the Chartwells Women's Sports Complex to open up Great American Conference play.
The match was highly-competitive throughout its entirety and came down to the last singles match on court – flight five pitting Tech's
Sofia Beggiatto against SAU's Inna Serpukhova.
Prior to the showdown at No. 5 singles, Tech got out to a 1-0 lead in the match as the Golden Suns (6-3, 1-0 GAC) captured the doubles point thanks to wins at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles. The No. 3 doubles pairing of
Madalena Amil and
Melanie Griffiths finished first, winning 6-1. Top doubles team of
Daniela Baez and
Lea Grinberg bested SAU's top team 6-3 to secure the point. SAU was able to come away with the win at No. 2 doubles.
In singles action, SAU quickly tied the match up at one-all with a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 3 singles. The Muleriders (4-8, 0-1 GAC) then took a 2-1 lead in the match with a 6-2, 7-5 win at No. 4 singles.
Isabella Major won her match at No. 6 singles, 6-4, 6-3 to pull Tech back even with SAU, 2-2. Grinberg then put Tech in a position to clinch the match as she won her No. 1 singles match 7-5, 6-3 against fellow countrywoman Sarah Roy.
The final two singles flights were very competitive matches. Flight two came to conclusion first with SAU's Lena Milosevic fending off Baez, 6-4, 7-6(8).
Once that match went final, all the attention turned toward court five where Beggiatto and Serpukhova were locked in a battle.
Beggiatto won the first set easily 6-1, but dropped the second set, 4-6. With Beggiatto leading 5-1 in the third-set, Serpukhova forced a third-set tiebreaker. Beggiatto would emerge victorious in the tiebreaker, winning 7-2 to also give Tech the overall match win, 4-3.
The Golden Suns will now have a quick turnaround as they are scheduled to play a second conference match on Wednesday afternoon at home against Ouachita. First-serve is scheduled for 2 p.m.
