Tweet #theGAC RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – East Central scored a 5-0 victory against Henderson State while Southern Nazarene edged Harding, 5-4, in Friday’s Great American Conference Women’s Tennis First Round matches from the Walmart Life Center.
 
The Tigers, one of the three to finish tied atop the GAC standings in the regular season, made quick work of the Reddies, starting with the doubles matches. GAC Newcomer of the Year Gloria Mayorga partnered with Virginie Rodriguez to win 8-2 at No. 2 doubles. Julia Municoy and Elisabeth Dignard paired to defeat GAC Freshman of the Year Annie Shannon and Amanda Korinihona 8-3 at the No. 1 position. At No. 3, Bernardita Mucillo and Srijita Ghosh defeated Kristen Pierce and Maddie McJunkins
 
Srijita Ghosh topped Hannah Watson, 6-1 and 6-0, to earn the fourth point of the match. Mucillo closed out the contest with a matching 6-1, 6-0 win against Sara Griffin.
 
The Tigers will face No. 2 seed Arkansas Tech in Friday night’s semifinal round.
 
The Crimson Storm, appearing at the GAC Championships for the first time in program history, went the distance with defending champion Harding to advance to Friday night’s other semifinal, against top-seeded Southeastern Oklahoma State.
 
In doubles, the Crimson Storm surrendered the first point of the match, an 8-0 decision at No. 3 to Piper Huey and Sydni Sansom. The tandems of Polina Chala and Karina Kotova followed by Masha Andrianova and Natalia Moreno scored 8-2 and 8-1 wins, respectively.
 
Harding evened the match with a straight-set win by Kaylie Brown No. 6 singles. Moreno registered a 6-0, 6-0 win at No. 3 for the Crimson Storm’s third point. The Bisons again evented the match after Emily Faulkner won 6-1, 6-0 at the No. 5 position.
 
Chala scored a 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 2 singles, only to see Harding come back to tie the match for the third time. Huey handed Andrianova, the two-time GAC Player of the Year just her second-ever loss to a GAC opponent, 6-4, 7-5.
 
The result of the match came down to the contest No. 4 singles between Kotova and Brittany Smyser. Kotova took the first set, 6-4 but relinquished the advantage after she dropped the second set in a tiebreaker 7-6 (7-2). Kotova recovered and jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the deciding set before ultimately scoring a 6-3 decision.