RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – Playing in their final home match of the regular season, the Arkansas Tech women's tennis team sent its senior class out in tremendous fashion on Thursday as they defeated Henderson State by a score of 6-1.
While the win on Senior Day was special in its own right, there was quite a bit more attached as the victory assured the Golden Suns (11-6, 4-0 GAC) at least a share of the 2023 Great American Conference Regular Season Championship. With one more conference match left on their schedule, a Saturday match at Southeastern Oklahoma, the Golden Suns have an opportunity to claim the championship outright with a victory against the Savage Storm.
The regular season championship is the fourth in program history and the first since 2015 when the Golden Suns shared that year's league title with a 5-1 conference record.
This most-recent championship was clinched in emphatic fashion as the Golden Suns clinched the match unscathed and added two more singles wins to bring the match to its final of 6-1.
In doubles,
Daniela Baez and
Sofia Beggiatto won at No. 2, 6-3, but Henderson answered back with a 6-4 win at No. 1 doubles. With the doubles point hanging in the balance,
Madalena Amil and
Melanie Griffiths won their No. 3 doubles match, 6-4.
On into singles play, Amil dominated her No. 4 match winning 6-2, 6-0.
Isabella Major, one of the three seniors, then put Tech up 3-0 in the match as she won her No. 6 singles match, 6-4, 6-2.
The clincher came at No. 3 singles with
Aastha Dargude winning 6-2, 6-3. Beggiatto then won her No. 5 match to make it 5-0 Tech.
No. 1 singles saw a pair of nationally-ranked singles players battle it out, but ultimately it was Henderson's Mulan Kamoe (No. 28) that emerged victorious over Tech's
Lea Grinberg (No. 40).
That was the Reddies' (11-6, 2-3 GAC) lone point of the match as Baez came back from a set one loss to win set two, 6-1 and then won the 10-point tiebreaker 10-6.
As previously mentioned, the Golden Suns have one more match this regular season and it is scheduled to take place this coming Saturday afternoon on the road at Southeastern Oklahoma. First-serve is scheduled for 2 p.m.
