Box Score CORPUS CHRISTI – The McNeese women's tennis team came up short to Central Arkansas, 4-3, in its first round Southland Conference Tournament match Thursday.  

The Cowgirls, seeded sixth and the defending tourney champs, dropped the doubles point and fell behind No. 3 UCA, 2-0 to start the match.

At doubles No. 3, UCA's Fuka Nonoyama and Yada Vasuongchai defeated McNeese's Dalia Ahmed and Sofia San Jose Moreno 6-2 to begin the match.

At doubles No. 1, UCA would secure the doubles point when Chunxi Xin and Marli Van Heerden defeated Charoline Erlandsson and Marija Mastilovic 6-3.

Cowgirls Giovanna Fioretti and Carolotta Romito had their match against QiLi Ma and Rada Manataweewat go unfinished while leading 4-3.

In singles action, Erlandsson would drop her match in straight sets 6-1, 6-4 to Nonoyama to give UCA a 2-0 lead.

At singles No. 4, Ahmed would get the Cowgirls on the board with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Vasupongchai.

At singles flight No. 1, Xin would secure UCA's third point of the day with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Fioretti.

Trailing 3-1 the Cowgirls fired back at flights three and six.

At singles No. 3, Mastilovic would cut the UCA lead to one with a 6-1, 7-6, (8-3) victory over Heerdan.

Finishing next, Romito would tie the match up at three apiece with a 7-5, 7-6 (8-6) victory over Manataweewat.

At singles No. 5, Ma would take the first set from Moreno 6-3. In the second set Moreno would bounce back to secure a 7-5 victory to tie the match up at one set each. In the final set, Ma would buckle down and defeat Moreno 6-0 to secure the victory for UCA.

 "Today we fought hard but unfortunately we were not able to get the win," said McNeese head coach Giorgia Pozzan. "Credit to UCA for taking the doubles; we bounced right back in singles and came down to the wire on court 5. I'm so very proud of what the team has accomplished this season and we will come back stronger next year."