BENTONVILLE, Ark. – A magical season continues for the No. 24 ranked Southern Arkansas Women's Tennis team as the top-seeded Lady Muleriders claimed the Great American Conference Tournament Championship on Saturday afternoon in Bentonville with a 4-3 win over second-seeded Harding. SAU earns the league's automatic bid to the Central Region Tournament which will begin on May 13 at a location to be determined. The NCAA DII Men's and Women's Tennis Championships Selection Show is scheduled for Tuesday, May 7 at 7:30 p.m.
The tournament title comes on the heels of the SAU Women winning the league's regular season title outright with a perfect 6-0 record in conference play. After an opening round bye, the Lady Muleriders edged fourth-seeded Arkansas Tech on Friday 4-3 to earn a spot in the championship round and battled with the Lady Bisons to claim the program's first tournament title in SAU's DII Era (1995-96). The regular season and tournament championships are the first for the SAU Women since 1973-74 when that year's squad finished as runner-up in the Arkansas Women's Intercollegiate Sports Association (AWISA) and also won an AWISA Singles Championship that season as well.
Saturday's victory is the tenth-consecutive for the Lady Muleriders who entered the GAC Tournament ranked No. 4 in the Central Region rankings.
SAU narrowly lost the doubles point, but took a 2-1 match lead as freshmen
Lena Milosevic and
Angela Vargas handled their respective opponents in two sets. A three-set, line six victory for Harding tied the match at 2, before freshman and All-GAC First-Team selection
Simone Simas broke a 4-4 score in the third set to win 6-4 and give the SAU Women a 3-2 lead. Harding won at line two to put the pressure at line one in a winner-take-all set three that all-league performer
Joanna Nowakowska won easily at 6-0.
#1 Southern Arkansas (4) vs #2 Harding (3)
| No. 1 Singles |
Set #1 |
Set #2 |
Set #3 |
| Joanna Nowakowska (SAU) |
6 |
2 |
6 |
| Rylie Cox (HU) |
3 |
6 |
0 |
| No. 2 Singles |
Set #1 |
Set #2 |
Set #3 |
| Aurora Novati (SAU) |
6 (3) |
2 |
- |
| Arisa Takanashi (HU) |
7 (7) |
6 |
- |
| No. 3 Singles |
Set #1 |
Set #2 |
Set #3 |
| Angela Vargas (SAU) |
6 |
6 |
- |
| Hana Folse (HU) |
2 |
2 |
- |
| No. 4 Singles |
Set #1 |
Set #2 |
Set #3 |
| Simone Simas (SAU) |
4 |
6 |
6 |
| Emily Carpenter (HU) |
6 |
1 |
4 |
| No. 5 Singles |
Set #1 |
Set #2 |
Set #3 |
| Lena Milosevic (SAU) |
6 |
6 |
- |
| Lindy Carpenter (HU) |
2 |
3 |
- |
| No. 6 Singles |
Set #1 |
Set #2 |
Set #3 |
| Serena Gill (SAU) |
6 |
3 |
3 |
| Allison Carpenter (HU) |
0 |
6 |
6 |
Doubles order of finish: 1-2; Singles order of finish: 5-3-6-4-2-1
