Luethi Recognized on Senior Day, Women's Tennis Falls to Central Arkansas

Box Score SENIOR DAY PRESENTATION | HIGHLIGHTS

New Orleans - On Senior Day, the New Orleans Privateers women's tennis team (9-9, 3-6) saw a rally fall just short in a 5-2 loss to the Central Arkansas Sugar Bears on Monday at the University Tennis Center. Anja Luethi was honored before the match for her accomplishments which included being the winningest women's tennis player since 2000.
 
Three singles matches went to three sets after the Privateers lost out on the doubles point earlier in the day. The Sugar Bears vaulted to an early lead after taking doubles matches at flight two and three. The first singles match was tilted to Central Arkansas at flight one to build a 2-0 lead for the Sugar Bears.
 
New Orleans got on the board when Mar Gendra overwhelmed Rada Manataweewat 6-2, 6-3 at flight six. The win pushed Gendra's record to 9-4 on the spring and moved her conference record to 5-1.
 
Central Arkansas (12-5, 5-3) built the lead to 3-1 with a straight set victory at flight four. The other three matches were hanging in the balance, but the Sugar Bears won two of those three. Luethi's final home singles match finished in a third set tiebreaker that was won narrowly by Chunan Xiang. Luethi's 53 wins represent the third Privateer since the turn of the millennium to crest the 50-win mark.
 
The second point came when Yurina Asai rallied back from down a set. Asai lost the first set 6-4 to Marli Van Heerden. Asai roared back to dominate the second set 6-1 and took the deciding set 6-3. The loss was the first for Van Heerden in 14 matches this spring.
 
New Orleans will face their final regular season weekend on the road when they travel to Sam Houston State on Friday and Lamar on Sunday. Both matches will begin at 2 p.m.
 
For full coverage of Privateers tennis, please follow @PrivateersTN on Twitter and @UNOPrivateers on Instagram, like /NewOrleansTennis on Facebook and subscribe to the /PrivateerAthletics channel on YouTube.