TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The challenging week of action over spring break paid off in a big way on Wednesday for the Arkansas Tech women's tennis team as they picked up an impressive 5-2 road win at nationally-ranked No. 43 Northeastern State.
The Golden Suns (9-6), who came up just short against a pair of nationally-ranked DII teams over their spring break, got off to a great start against Northeastern State by winning the doubles point.
In doubles, the Golden Suns took care of the No. 3 match as
Madalena Amil and
Melanie Griffiths won 6-3. NSU then leveled the action with a 6-2 win at the top-flight doubles match, leaving the deciding match for the point at No. 2 doubles. That's where the pairing of
Daniela Baez and
Sofia Beggiatto won a close match 6-4.
Up 1-0 in the match, the Golden Suns went up 2-0 quickly in singles action as Baez made quick work of her opponent at No. 2, winning 6-4, 6-0.
The RiverHawks (9-6) got their first point in the match at No. 3 singles as their player won in three sets, 0-6, 6-0, 6-0.
No. 6 singles also went three sets, but it was Tech's
Isabella Major who emerged victorious as she won 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 to give the Golden Suns a 3-1 advantage in the match.
NSU drew close once more with a tightly-contested three-set win at No. 4 singles.
With the match now 3-2 in favor of Tech, all eyes turned to the remaining two matches; flight one and flight five.
As has happened on multiple occasions this year, the clinching point for the Golden Suns was secured by Beggiatto at No. 5. She would win her match in straight sets, 7-6, 7-5.
Despite the match being decided, it was played out which allowed for
Lea Grinberg to pick up a signature win for her singles resume. Playing against the No. 16-ranked singles player in DII in Emilia Cosatto, Grinberg dropped the first set 2-6, but rallying in a major way in set two, winning convincingly, 6-1. In the third-set tiebreaker, Grinberg came out on top 7-5.
The Golden Suns are now done with non-conference play and have three more conference matches left on their regular season schedule. The first of those is scheduled to be played on Tuesday, April 11 on the road at Harding. The match is scheduled for a 2 p.m. start.
