The UCA tennis team (10-8, 3-3 ASUN) struggled in its first match against Bellarmine (4-18, 1-5 ASUN), causing UCA to fall behind until the last second with a 4-3 victory.
The Bears started off on Saturday with doubles where junior Jaeun Lee and sophomore Nicole Ross secured the win.
This would prove to only carry the Bears for a little while with the other double matches causing UCA to fall behind 0-1.
The climb back from this fall was not a pretty one, including many setbacks along the way.
Lee and freshman Vichitraporn Vimuktananda, UCA’s No. 1 and No. 2 singles players, both started off the singles with not much luck.
Both players ended up losing their matches early, creating an even bigger gap in scores, 0-3.
UCA would then start to take charge at the last second with Ross winning four singles games.
These victories allowed UCA to climb back up from the fall and score the win against Bellarmine by 4-3.
This win was very much needed for the Bears after their previous conference loss in Florida just three weeks before.
The loss to Florida caused UCA’s conference standing to be up in the air, not knowing if they could pick it back up.
The win against Bellarmine allowed the Bears to regain their standing in the conference.
This win also counts as the Bears’ second win against Bellarmine this season.
Bellarmine had a rough start this season with its 4-18 record, including their last game against Vanderbilt which resulted in a loss for Bellarmine.
The Bears have been on a winning streak, defeating Tufts University on March 21 and Eastern Kentucky University on March 30.
The Bears absolutely destroyed Tufts 6-1 with their single wins and were also able to obtain two out of the three doubles rounds played.
UCA grabbed its win against EKU with a doubles victory and singles victories allowing them to take home the win.
UCA will continue its tennis season with its next games being against two Tennessee schools.
Later this week, UCA will go up against Austin Peay on Thursday, April 6 at 11 a.m. and Lipscomb on Saturday, April 8 at 10 a.m. Both games will be the last two played at home.