RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech women's tennis team played its final home match of the 2025 season on Tuesday afternoon against Henderson State. Tech would lose the match 6-1, but the Golden Suns were valiant throughout the match and pushed the Reddies until the final point.
Doubles action came down to the wire and to line three as the first two lines were split between Tech and HSU. The Reddies would win the first doubles match 6-0 at line one, but the Golden Suns' pairing of
Elis Gergel and
Maria Krite leveled things with a 7-5 win at line two.
The doubles point now hinged on line three where
Meaghan Butler and
Melanie Griffiths were taking on Henderson's Angela Georgieva and Lily Winter. Their match would eventually be tied six-all to force a decisive tie-break. The Golden Suns narrowly lost that tie-break, 7-4.
In singles play, it did not take long for the Golden Suns to even the match up overall as Griffiths made quick work of her line six match, 6-2, 6-2. The Reddies then picked up the next two singles matches, winning at lines one and five in straight sets.
The final three matches left would all need third-set tie-breakers.
The first to come to completion was at line two where
Elis Gergel forced a tie-breaking third set wit ha 6-1 win in set two after dropping the first set, 2-6. Gergel, unfortunately would drop the third set, 4-6.
Line four singles was next to finish and also saw a Golden Sun force the tie-break. This time it was
Natalya Montoya winning the second set, 7-6 (4) after dropping the first, 4-6. In the tie-breaker, Montoya lost 1-6.
The final singles match left was an absolute marathon match between Krite and Georgieva. Both of their sets needed tie-breaks within the sets. Krite would win the first set, 7-6 (4) and then narrowly lost the second set, 6-7 (5). The two then played to a 10-point tie-break in the third set and even that pushed beyond the needed points as Georgieva won 11-9.
The Golden Suns will now prepare for their final match of the regular season next Tuesday. That match will take place on the road at Ouachita Baptist and is scheduled for a 2 p.m. start.
