GOLDEN SUNS PERFORM WELL AT ITS THIRD-ANNUAL TECH TENNIS SLAM TOURNAMENT THIS PAST WEEKEND

        RUSSELLVILLE, Arkansas – The Arkansas Tech Golden Suns Tennis team had several outstanding performances in its 3rd-Annual Tech Tennis Slam Tournament held this past weekend at the Chartwells Tennis Complex on the Tech campus.

Tech was one of five teams that participated in the two day tournament that featured four singles flights and two doubles flights.

“It was a good start to the season for our team and we’ll now we’ll go back to work and continue to get better.” Golden Suns Tennis Head Coach Abby Davis said.

In singles action, junior Saki Matsuoka (Saitama, Japan), one of the four returners from last season’s 17-5 squad went 3-0 in Flight 1 singles and defeated her teammate, sophomore Brittany Turner (Pearcy, Ark.) in straight sets (6-2, 6-4) in the finals of Flight 1. Turner finished 2-1 in Flight 1 singles and junior Michelle Yu (Flower Mound, Texas) lost both of her Flight 1 singles matches.

Two of Tech’s freshmen, Emorie Mallow (Keller, Texas) and Laura Palamino (Irving, Texas) advanced to finals of the Flight 2 Consolation bracket as they both posted 3-1 records, while freshman Jessica Velasquez (Keller, Texas) went 2-1 in Flight 3 singles and lost in straight sets (6-3, 6-0) in the finals to Southeastern Oklahoma’s Sara Schmidt. Junior Jessica James (Lead Hill, Ark.) went 2-2 in Flight 3 singles as she lost in that flight’s consolation semifinals to Henderson State’s Estephanie Lau.

In the fourth and final singles flight, freshmen Megan Childers (Greenwood, Ark.) and Nina Greenway (Monticello, Ark.) advanced to the final in the flight with Greenway coming away with a 6-1, 6-2 victory. Greenway went 4-0, while Childers compiled a 3-1 record and freshman Jenny Yu (Flower Mound, Texas) went 2-2 in Flight 4 as she lost in the consolation semifinal to Henderson State’s Theresa Nguyen.

Meanwhile, in doubles competition, Turner and Matsuoka advanced to the finals of Flight 1 doubles, where they posted an 8-4 win over the team of Lau and Stephanie Schnobel from Henderson State, while James and Michelle Yu advanced to Flight 1 doubles consolation round and finished with a 1-2 record. In Flight 2 doubles, Greenway and Childers went 3-0 as they won the flight by defeating their teammates, Mallow and Velasquez by a score of 9-7. Tech’s other doubles team of Jenny Yu and Palamino went 2-2 as they lost in the semifinals of Flight 2 to Greenway and Childers.

Tech will conclude its fall season on Oct. 9-10 when they travel to Plano, Texas, to compete in the 21st-Annual Collin County Community College Open.

Complete results of 3rd-Annual Tech Tennis Slam Tournament

-- Tech Athletics --