BENTONVILLE, Ark. – On Sunday, third-seeded Southeastern Oklahoma State completed a historic run at the Great American Conference Women’s Tennis Championships by defeating top-seeded Harding, 4-1, to win the program’s third GAC title.
In addition to becoming the first team to win three GAC Women’s Tennis Championships, the Savage Storm (20-7) became the first team to defeat both the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds en route to the title. They defeated second-seeded Arkansas Tech, 4-0, on Saturday.
Sunday’s match started ominously for the Savage Storm as they dropped the doubles point to the Lady Bisons (18-5). Harding’s No. 2 tandem of Romane Britt and Lindy Carpenter and the No. 3 duo of Emily Carpenter and Allison Jenkins registered matching 6-2 wins.
Any momentum Harding hoped to carry into singles play quickly vanished as Southeastern won the first set in five of the six matches. The Savage Storm picked up their first point when Georgia Hosking finished off a 6-1,6-2 win against Emily Carpenter in the No. 4 match. Vanessa Nitu defeated Lina Romero by a 6-2, 6-1 to give Southeastern its first lead.
Elizaveta Tregubova put the Savage Storm one point from the title with her win at No. 5. After claiming the opening set with Lindy Carpenter in a tiebreak, she had an easier time with the second set as she took it, 6-1. Sara Gonzalez won the deciding point, 6-1, 6-2, in match No. 3 against Britt.
The Savage Storm clinched the automatic bid to the Central Regional. The NCAA selection show streams at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Harding entered the GAC Championships ranked third in the region and hopes to secure one of the three at-large spots.