Women’s Tennis: Cajuns Snap Skid With Win Over A-State

ARLINGTON, Texas – The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns picked up its first win in Sun Belt Conference play on Saturday afternoon, 4-2, over Arkansas State in the finale of a three-match weekend of SBC play.
 
The win was the first for Louisiana (4-16) since Feb. 21, and was a well-earned victory over the Red Wolves (3-11), starting with doubles play when Alexandra Way and Abby Johnson clinched the doubles point with a tiebreaker win on the No. 2 court.
 
From there the Cajuns scored singles points at Nos. 2 and 5 singles before Elena Sava clinched the match at No. 3 singles with a  (6-4, 7-6) win.
 
"It was a total team effort to get this win," Louisiana head coach Greg Harkins said. "The team has shown steady improvement and this win is an accumulation of guts and pride in a very tough conference match."
 
Things got started when Kelly Drew and Lauren Dupuis teamed up at No. 3 doubles to knock off Victoria Pisani and Sofia Krsmanovic (8-3), setting Way and Johnson up to clinch the point on the No. 2 court with a (8-7) win over Julie Gauguery and Jess Heeps-Eriksen.
 
The Red Wolves got a point back when their top player, Tamara Slijepcevic picked up a win, but the Cajuns quickly regained the lead by taking the next two points. Abby Johnson put UL back in front with a (6-2, 6-3) win over Heeps-Eriksen at No. 5 singles, followed by Nelo Phiri sweeping Gauguery (6-4, 6-3) at No. 2 play.
 
Chiara Stefanov won at No. 6 singles to get a point back for A-State, but not long after, Sava closed things out in tremendous fashion by winning a second-set tiebreaker on the No. 3 court.
 
"Records go out the door during conference play," Harkins said. "The team just wanted it and refused to let go of the rope."
 
The math against the Red Wolves was the third of the weekend for the Cajuns, who dropped 4-0 decisions to UT Arlington and Texas State on Friday and Saturday.
 
Louisiana will have a pair of non-conference matches on Friday and Saturday when they head to the east coast for meetings with North Florida and Central Florida in Jacksonville and Orlando.
 
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