No. 3 Northwestern State Defeats No. 7 Central Arkansas to Defend Championship Title
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NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Third-seeded Northwestern State defeated upset-minded seventh-seeded Central Arkansas 4-2 in the 2016 Southland Conference Women's Tennis Tournament semifinals Saturday afternoon in Nacogdoches, Texas. The Lady Demons advanced to their fourth-straight Southland tournament championship match with the win and are seeking their third league tournament title in the past four years.
The Sugar Bears drew first blood after wins at the No. 1 and No. 3 spots. The No. 3 pair of Rada Manataweewat and QiLi Ma didn’t miss a step against Barbora Kollarova and Alzbeta Veveroka, winning 6-0. At second doubles, the Lady Demons' Polina Mutel and Iryna Vardanian were up 5-1 on Xylia Chunan Xiang and Marli Van Heerden when Nataly Yoo and Amiru Shimoguchi clinched to doubles point with a 6-2 win over Natalya Krutova and Polina Ivanova at the top level.
In singles play, UCA grabbed a win at the No. 5 position while Northwestern earned victories at the first, third, fourth, and sixth spots to clinch the match. At No. 1 singles the Krutova won 6-1, 7-5 against UCA’s Yoo as Mutel got a 6-2, 6-3 win over UCA’s Shimoguchi. At the fourth spot the Lady Demons' Ivanova was a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 winner over Ma, while her teammate Veverkova defeated UCA's Buck, 7-6, (7-4), 6-3.
The Lady Demons will now face top-seeded Northwestern State tomorrow afternoon in the championship match, slated for 2 p.m. The Islanders women defeated fourth-seeded McNeese State, 4-3, earlier this afternoon.
The Islanders handed the Lady Demons a 5-2 loss during conference play and are one game away from a perfect 24-0 season.
Northwestern State has now made the tournament championship match a total of six times since 2010 and will be playing for its fourth overall tournament title. The Lady Demons hold a 3-2 record in those title matches with championship wins coming in 2010, 2013 and 2015.
The winner of the Southland tournament championship match will receive the league's automatic bid to the NCAA championship.
Admission is free to all matches of the 2016 Southland Conference Women's Tennis Tournament, for more information regarding results, records and more please visit Southland.org