Islanders Earn Consecutive Championships, Defeat UCA 4-2

Islanders Earn Consecutive Championships, Defeat UCA 4-2

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Southland Conference

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BEAUMONT, Texas – Texas A&M-Corpus Christi clinched back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament with a 4-2 win over Central Arkansas in the Southland Tennis Championship on Sunday at the Beaumont Municipal Tennis Center in Beaumont, Texas.
 
It was Jelena Dzinic who finished the match for the Islanders at No. 2 singles. After winning the first set 6-1 against the Sugar Bears’ Hee-Jin Oh, the two were tied in the second at 4-4. With Oh serving, the junior from Serbia forced her opponent to double fault on game-point to take the 5-4 lead before winning the next game and ending the match.
 
Judit Vives had put the defending tournament champions up 2-0 with a 6-2, 6-0 victory at the No. 4 slot, but it was not too long before UCA cut the lead in half. The Sugar Bears’ Marli Van Heerden – who had clinched the last point the past two days for her team – won at No. 5 against Maria Maldonado 6-1, 6-2 to make the score 2-1.
 
Marina Vicens Miquel extended the lead for Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to 3-1 with a 6-3, 6-1 victory on Rada Manataweewat but before the Islanders could put the match away, QiLi Ma won consecutive 6-2 sets to keep UCA in the match.
 
Hortense Boscher of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and UCA’s Pornpawee Pramethong were in the third set of the top flight before the match was left unfinished. Boscher had won the first 6-4 before Pramethong bounced back to even the score with a 6-3 win in the second set.
 
The Islanders entered singles competition with the doubles point, picking up wins from their ones, Vives and Dzinic, and threes, Vicens Miquel and Maldonado.
 
This is Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s second consecutive tournament championship after defeating Northwestern State 4-2 last year and third time in four years that the Islanders have won the regular season championship and tournament title.
 
Head coach Steve Moore and his Islander side will find out their NCAA Tournament destination Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. during the selection show on NCAA.com.