Stephen F. Austin
Central Arkansas
Ladyjacks Set for Sunday Showdown at Central Arkansas
4/14/2018 2:42:00 PM | Women's Tennis
SFA needs to defeat Sugar Bears in order to keep hopes for Southland Conference Tournament alive
Match Nineteen
Stephen F. Austin (2-16, 1-8 Southland) at Central Arkansas (12-5, 5-3 Southland)
Sunday, April 15 | Noon | UCA Tennis Courts | Conway, Ark.
THE FIRST SERVE
• If the Stephen F. Austin women's tennis team wants to make the field for the 2018 Southland Conference Tournament, the Ladyjacks must win in Conway, Ark., Sunday at noon when they meet league adversary Central Arkansas at the UCA Tennis Courts.
• SFA currently trails Incarnate Word by two matches for eighth place in the league standings with two matches remaining. The top eight teams at the conclusion of the regular season will head to Beaumont, Texas, to take part in the 2018 Southland Conference Tournament.
• In singles play, junior Kaja Ljubic continues to lead the Ladyjacks in Southland Conference play. The third-year player has posted five of the team's 17 Southland singles wins and her seven total singles wins are tied with Darinka Tiboldi for the most on the team.
• Armelle Cerdan has won each of her last two singles matches and has now upped her win total in singles play to four matches.
• Last week the Ladyjacks picked up their second win of the season, besting non-conference adversary Prairie View A&M 4-1 on Friday before returning to Nacogdoches and dropping a 5-2 decision to two-time defending Southland Conference champion Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
• SFA is 15-27 (.357) in doubles matches this season which includes an 8-14 (.364) showing in Southland Conference tandem play.
• In singles play, the Ladyjacks are a combined 29-71 (.290) with a 17-37 (.315) ledger in Southland Conference singles matches. The number-five flight has been where SFA has had the most success, going 7-9 (.438). No other singles spot has posted a winning percentage north of .333 this season.
SCOUTING CENTRAL ARKANSAS | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• Hoping to lock up a top four seed for the upcoming Southland Conference Tournament, the Sugar Bears have won three of their last five matches heading into a weekend where they will play their final two home matches of 2018.
• An exceptional doubles squad, the Sugar Bears are an impressive 34-12 (.739) in tandem play this season. That winning percentage rises even higher when Southland Conference-only matches are taken into account as Central Arkansas is 16-5 (.762) in league doubles tilts. Twelve of those 34 total doubles victories have come from the team of QiLi Ma and Rada Manataweewat who are 12-2 and 5-1 in Southland play.
• In singles action, two Sugar Bears have posted 10 or more wins, none more than Marli Van Heerdan who has gone 13-1 and 6-1 in league play while playing in the fifth or sixth slot throughout the season. Hee-Jin Oh is 11-4 and 5-2 in Southland matches while having won eight of her last 10 matches.
• Pornpawee Pramethong (9-6, 5-3 Southland) is riding a three-match winning streak and both she and Amiru Shimoguchi (9-5, 5-3 Southland) need just one more win to reach 10 singles triumphs in 2018.
COMING UP NEXT
In their final weekend of the regular season, the Ladyjacks hit the road for a non-conference match with LSU-Alexandria at 2:00 p.m., Friday afternoon in Alexandria, La., before matching up with Southland Conference combatant Incarnate Word Saturday in Houston, Texas.
-SFA-
