NEW ORLEANS – It was another match that went down to the wire as the New Orleans Privateers women's tennis team (7-3-, 1-2) fell just short in a 4-3 decision to the Central Arkansas Sugar Bears (8-5, 2-0) on Friday afternoon at the University Tennis Center.
The doubles point was hotly contested and came down to flight two. Central Arkansas had a 6-0 victory at flight three, but the Privateers responded at flight one.
Trang Dao and
Ank Vullings engineered a 6-3 win to bring the doubles point to the wire. But Central Arkansas prevailed late in the set, winning 7-5 to take a pivotal opening point.
The Sugar Bears began with momentum early in singles as the back half of the rotation was a big assist for their 2-0 conference start. Central Arkansas won flights five and six which were the first two matches to put their overall lead at 3-0 for the afternoon. But New Orleans turned up the pressure from there.
Vullings and Dao each earned victories to narrow the gap. At flight one, Vullings won in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 to notch her fifth win of the spring. Dao withstood a grueling tiebreak in the first set before coasting in the second set to a 7-6, 6-1 win to push the Privateers within a point.
The deciding match came at flight four. Marli Van Heerden of Central Arkansas won in two long sets against
Mar Gendra (7-5, 6-4) to give UCA the clinching point.
Salma Abdelrahim earned the third point for New Orleans in a three-set battle. Moved up a spot in the rotation, Abdelrahim cruised through the first set 6-1. Mei Ishimura had an answer in the second set winning 7-5. But Abdelrahim persevered, winning by a 7-5 score in the third set.
New Orleans concludes their conference weekend against Northwestern State on Sunday. The match is scheduled for an 11 a.m. start.
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