NEW ORLEANS, La. (4/16/15) – The Arkansas State women's tennis team notched its first victory in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament since 2011 with a thrilling 4-3 win over No. 7 Appalachian State Thursday afternoon at the City Park Tennis Center.
The match was tied at 3-3 after singles' competition, which forced the doubles matches to be player under the ITA shortened format where singles matches are played first and doubles are played only if necessary. The format is being used throughout the tournament due to the threat of inclement weather in the New Orleans area, which delayed the match for approximately 25 minutes after it had begun.
Playing as a doubles team for just the third time during the dual match season, Julie Gauguery and Jess Heeps-Eriksen gave the Red Wolves an early advantage in doubles' play with a 6-2 victory over Appalachian State's McKayla Zupan and Gabrielle Wreder in the No. 3 position. The Mountaineers responded with a 6-3 victory over the Red Wolves' Sofia Krsmanovic and Victoria Pisani in the No. 2 spot to force a thrilling end to match.
In the No. 1 position, Tamara Slijepcevic and Sabina Jeresic defeated Clare Cox and MacKenzie LaSure 6-2 to secure the doubles' point for A-State and give the squad its first victory in postseason play in four years.
“I am so proud of how the team played today,” A-State head coach Marina Cooper said. “Everyone gave their heart and soul in today's match and we were rewarded with a great victory. The effort we gave in the doubles matches was great to see and I am very proud of my team for what they were able to accomplish today.”
In singles' play, Slijepcevic won her 50th career match with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Cox to start the day off. The senior from Novi Sad, Serbia is just the seventh player in A-State history to surpass the 50-win mark in singles matches.
Appalachian State evened the match with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Chiara Stefanov in the No. 5 position, but A-State took the lead back behind a strong effort from Julie Gauguery in the No. 2 spot. Gauguery took the first set 6-4 and led by two games in the second set, but Gabrielle Wreder tied the set at 6-6 to force a tiebreak. Gauguery battled through and won the tiebreak 7-3 to give the Red Wolves a one-point advantage in the match.
Pisani dropped the No. 3 match to LaSure to even the score at 2-2, but Jeresic but A-State back in front with a 7-5, 6-4 victory in the No. 4 position. Needing just one more point in the final two matches, the Red Wolves faltered and dropped the No. 5 and No. 6 position matches to send the match to doubles where A-State rallied for the win.
With the victory Arkansas State advances to play No. 2 Georgia State in the quarterfinal round Friday morning at 11:30 a.m. If A-State wins they would advance to play take on the winner of No. 3 UT Arlington and No. 6 Troy in the semifinals on Saturday.
For more information on the 2015 Sun Belt Conference Tennis Championships, visit the championship central page on SunBeltSports.org. Live scoring will be available for all matches of the tournaments. Admission is free for all matches at the City Park Tennis Center.
