BOX SCORE | BENTONVILLE, Ark. –Southern Arkansas completed an unblemished run against Great American Conference opponents as the Lady Muleriders claimed their first GAC Women’s Tennis Championship title by defeating Harding, 4-3, on Saturday from the Walton Life Fitness Center.
The back-and-forth contest culminated on court one in a match that featured two of the league’s best in SAU’s Joanna Nowakowska and Harding’s Rylie Cox. Nowakowska, a unanimous First-Team All-GAC selection took the opening set, 6-3. Cox, the GAC Newcomer of the Year as well as a First-Team pick herself, answered by winning the second set, 6-2. Nowakowska seized control of the final set en route to scoring a decisive 6-0 win to clinch the title and the league’s automatic bid the NCAA Tournament.
Harding (16-6) won the doubles point thanks to wins by Cox and Arisa Takanashi, the nation’s No. 16 doubles pair, and Lindy Carpenter and Hana Folse. The regular-season champion Lady Muleriders (24-3) leveled the contest when Leno Milosevic knocked of Carpenter in straight sets.
Angela Vargas, the GAC Freshman of the Year, gave SAU its first lead when she tallied a 6-2, 6-2 win against Folse. Allison Carpenter drew Harding even, 2-2, after she rallied from dropping the first set to Serena Gill, 0-6, by rattling off a pair of 6-3 wins in the final two sets.
SAU’s Simone Simas also staged a come-from-behind victory at No. 4 singles. She lost the opening set to Emily Carpenter, 4-6, but took the subsequent sets, 6-1, 6-4 to push SAU to the brink of the title. Takanashi helped the Lady Bisons stave off elimination as she defeated Aurora Novati in the No. 2 match, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2.
SAU became the sixth No. 1 seed to win the GAC Championship in the eight-year history of the league and the fourth-straight top seed to claim the title.
The Lady Muleriders and Lady Bisons will now await their NCAA postseason fate. They both entered the GAC Championships rated in the top eight of the NCAA Central Region rankings as SAU placed fourth and the Harding checked in at eighth. The top six schools from the Central Region will earn spots in the NCAA Tournament. The NCAA will announce the tournament field at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 7.