Racers Hang Tough at Central Arkansas Invitational

Friday, September 20

Conway, Ark.

9 AM

Murray State

Central Arkansas Invitational

Photo by: Dan Hasko

9/23/2019 5:24:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Final Tournament Bracket (PDF)Box Score (PDF)

Murray State women's tennis traveled to Conway, Arkansas for their second tournament of the season, competing in both singles and doubles competitions at the Central Arkansas Invitational over the weekend. While the Racers battled injuries throughout the tournament, they saw a plethora of impressive performances as they built on last week's excellent start to the 2019-20 campaign.

"We love going to play at UCA because they always have a great atmosphere for the players and there is always very competitive teams participating, and it was no different this year. The level of the participants was very high, and it was good for us to compete against them," said MSU head coach Jorge Caetano.

Highlighting the tournament for the Racers in singles would be Sara Loncarevic, who played to a fourth-place finish after she defeated Fuku Nonoyama of Central Arkansas (6-4, 6-4) in the quarterfinals of the flight two singles bracket.

"Sara Loncarevic had another strong performance in singles for us, taking out the favorite in her flight in the first round and losing a very close third set against the eventual champion in the semis. I am very happy with the way she is playing and the level she has been able to maintain throughout the entire match," added Caetano.

Leading Murray State in doubles over the weekend would be the team of Samantha Muller and Marit Kreugel, who also earned a fourth-place finish after prevailing in their quarterfinal match (6-0) over Missouri State's Claire Martin and Mara Presot. Unfortunately, their run would be cut short after they were forced to retire the third-place match due to injury.

"Sam and Marit did a great job for us in doubles. They were playing with great energy and confidence. They had the lead at 3-2 when Marit had her injury (which also took her out of singles) and I am very proud of the way she handled her situation and the way both of them battled until the very end."

"Overall, it was a very valuable tournament for us, and we got to see how important it is for us to be 100% healthy in order to have our best results - which was not the case this weekend. We had some very good wins and competed in every match, but we know we could have done a better job closing out some of those matches. Now we have a weekend off from competition, and we are going to be very focused on getting healthy so we can perform to the best of our abilities at the Ball State Invite," concluded Caetano.

The Ball State Invite will be the next opportunity for the Racers to compete when they travel to Muncie, Indiana for the two days of competition. Matches are slated to begin on Friday, October 4^th.