Razorbacks Fly Through To Round 2

Box Score (PDF) | Tournament Bracket (PDF)

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — An impressive performance in singles action helped No. 11 seed Arkansas to a 4-1 win against No. 14 seed Missouri on Wednesday in the first round of the 2018 Southeastern Conference Women’s Tennis Tournament at the Dr. Robert L. Barksdale Tennis Stadium.

The Razorbacks (8-15, 3-10 SEC) surrendered the doubles point, but used four consecutive singles victories in straight sets to secure the overall team win over the Tigers (13-17, 0-13).

“Today was a very strong performance,” Razorbacks head coach Michael Hegarty said. “Tons of credit to Missouri, they have been so close to a lot more wins this year and their coaches and players are doing a great job. This conference just has no mercy sometimes. The past two seasons we were at team match point on the eventual national champions (Vanderbilt, 2016; Florida, 2017) and still we went a month both seasons where we couldn’t win a conference match. So credit to both teams today, this was a quality match in the greatest league.”

No. 50 Giulia Pairone provided the clinching victory at the top spot, 7-6 (7-4), 6-0. With the win, she improved to 12-5 on this spring.

Mia Jurasic got the first singles win of the day at No. 3, a 6-1, 6-0 decision. No. 89 Ana Oparenovic then bested her opponent 6-4, 6-4 at No. 2 before Jackie Carr set up the clincher with a 6-4, 6-4 win of her own and her first ever against a conference opponent at No. 6.

Up Next
The Razorbacks will play No. 6 seed Auburn at 11 a.m. CT Thursday.