No. 18 Razorbacks Power Past Tulsa 6-1

Box Score (PDF)

TULSA, Okla. – Behind a strong doubles performance and five singles wins, the No. 18 Arkansas women’s tennis team cruised to a 6-1 victory over No. 32 Tulsa on Wednesday at Michael D. Case Tennis Center.

The Razorbacks (14-3, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) finished its non-conference road schedule with a 4-0 record, which included wins against now-No. 21 Kansas and Purdue in February.

“Very proud of our team to complete such a grinding non-conference road slate today in such strong fashion,” head coach Michael Hegarty said. “Tulsa is far better than its No. 32 ranking, and this was one of our more complete team performances across the board.”

Arkansas earned wins at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles to win the opening point for the 14th time this season.

The two teams split the first two matches with the Razorbacks’ No. 38-ranked tandem of senior co-captain Shannon Hudson and freshman Giulia Pairone winning first at No. 1, 6-0.

After Tulsa (16-5, 3-0 American Athletic Conference) earned a 6-4 victory at No. 2, Arkansas’ pair of freshman Natsuho Arakawa and junior Léolia Jeanjean won a hard-fought 7-5 tiebreaker to give the Razorbacks a 1-0 lead and momentum heading into singles action. Hudson and Pairone bettered their record to 8-1, while Arakawa and Jeanjean improved to 7-2.

Arkansas got off to a quick start in singles play, winning four first sets.

Arakawa gave the Razorbacks their first singles victory, easing past Marcelina Cichon 6-0, 6-1 at the No. 6 position and improving to 11-3 in dual matches. No. 115 Oparenovic then downed Rongrong Leenabanchong 6-3, 6-1 at No. 2 to give Arkansas a 3-0 lead and up her record to 6-4.

No. 121 Jeanjean clinched the match at 4-0 with a 6-2, 7-6 win at No. 3 over Mahitha Dadireddy, pushing her record to a team-best 13-1.

The Razorbacks added two more victories to extend their lead to 6-0. Junior Mia Jurasic won a third-set tiebreaker 7-3 to complete a 6-2, 2-6, 1-0 (7-3) win at No. 4 and improve to 9-4, while Pairone battled past Martha Matoula 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 at No. 5 for her 10th win in 11 matches.

The Golden Hurricane picked up its lone win at the top spot to close out scoring.

Up Next
The No. 18 Razorbacks will return home to host No. 1 Florida (14-1, 4-1 SEC) on Friday for a top-20 showdown and chance at first place in the SEC standings. First serve is set for 6 p.m. at George M. Billingsley Tennis Center. Following that match, the Razorbacks will welcome No. 24 South Carolina (11-5, 2-3 SEC) for an 11 a.m. match on Sunday.