IRVINE, Calif. – Playing in their second nationally-ranked match in as many days, the No. 39-ranked Arkansas Tech women's tennis team came up just short in a high-level marathon match against No. 40-ranked Concordia University Irvine, 4-3.
In doubles play, Concordia won all three matches to secure the doubles point. Despite dropping the three doubles matches, all three were competitive. The most competitive came at No. 3 as
Madalena Amil and
Melanie Griffiths played the Golden Eagles' (10-1) pairing of Alyssa Zayat and Alicia Da Re to a tiebreaker. Zayat and Da Re ultimately won that tiebreaker 7-2.
As competitive as doubles play was, singles play took that up a notch as four of the six matches went three sets. The two that didn't need a third set went in favor of the Golden Suns (7-6).
The first one to come to completion was at No. 4 with Amil winning 6-4, 6-0 to knot the match at one-all.
After Concordia won at No. 2 singles, Tech leveled the match once again as
Lea Grinberg won 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 at No. 1.
The back-and-forth nature of the match played on with the next two results being split as Concordia won at No. 3 and Tech winning at No. 6 singles. That put all the attention to the No. 5 match as it would be the deciding point.
In that match,
Sofia Beggiatto took on CUI's Jessica Bear. Beggiatto dropped the first set 4-6, but bounced back for a 6-2 win in set two. With all eyes on their match, Bear claimed the third-set tiebreaker, 6-3 to secure the team win for Concordia.
The Golden Suns, who spent their spring break playing against a DI opponent and two nationally-ranked DII teams, are battled tested and are slated to jump back into Great American Conference play the next time they take the court. That match will be a road match at Southeastern Oklahoma on Friday, March 31. First-serve is scheduled for 1 p.m. in Durant.
