Box Score UPDATE: Due to expected thunderstorms on Friday, the semifinal start time has been moved up to 9 AM Eastern (8 Central) and the match will be held indoors.

PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. – The 4th-seeded UT Arlington women's tennis team picked up a decisive 4-1 win over 5th-seeded ULM Thursday afternoon in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, advancing to Friday's semifinals at Peachtree Tennis Center.
 
With the victory, UTA (16-8) moves on to face 8th-seeded Georgia Southern in the semifinals at 9 a.m. Central (10 a.m. local Eastern) on Friday after the Eagles stunned top-seeded Appalachian State in the quarterfinals, 4-3, as the Mavericks watched on shortly after their own triumph.
 
That triumph came with plenty of ups-and-downs – despite the final score – as UTA raced out to a 3-0 lead before ULM pulled within 3-1, and then all three remaining singles matches went to a 3rd, and final, set.
 
However, the Mavs' settled back down and held leads on all three courts in those final sets, but it was Liz Chileno who delivered the ultimate match-clinching point on Court 5 as part of a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 win.
 
"I'm really proud of the girls; they played extremely intense from the beginning," said head coach Diego Benitez. "I thought our doubles win was huge and provided a lot of momentum to get ahead in a few singles matches in order to get some points on the board. But ULM is a tough team and they fought until the end. The score doesn't really reflect the intensity of the match."
 
UTA jumped out to a fast start by claiming the doubles point in rather convincing fashion. Carla Pons and Momoka Horiguchi took the first match at the No. 2 position, 6-2, and moments later on the court directly to their left they watched Nanaka Takeuchi and Chileno close out their opponents at the No. 1 slot, 6-3, to take a 1-0 lead.
 
In the third doubles match, the Mavericks were in firm control there as well as Almudena Boza and Lucia Natal held a 5-2 lead with the ULM duo serving at 30-30 as the doubles point was closed out on Court 1.
 
Pons and Horiguchi got the job done by taking advantage of their first serve as they connected at a 95-percent rate (20 of 21), compared with just 62 percent (13 of 21) for ULM. The exact same trend transpired on Court 1 as well as Takeuchi and Chileno posted a 93-percent 1st-serve rate (26 of 28) compared with 75 percent (18 of 24) for the Warhawks. Those two also saved five of six break points – more than the other two matches combined.
 
As action moved to singles on a mostly cloudy and windy afternoon a half hour outside Atlanta, Natal wasted no time at all in a dominant straight-set victory at No. 3, dropping just one game en route to a 6-1, 6-0 victory to move the Mavs within two singles victories of advancing.
 
As Boza and Takeuchi took their first sets, 6-0 and 6-3, respectively, UTA dropped the first sets in the other three singles matches, but the Mavs remained in control of the match.
 
That was re-affirmed when Boza followed up her first-set win with a 6-4 victory in the second set to take the contest and push the UTA lead in the match to 3-0. Both players had a 1st-serve percentage of better than 95 percent, but Boza capitalized off those chances as she won 24 of those 35 points (69 percent), while ULM claimed just nine of 35 (26 percent).
 
Her triumph turned most of the focus to Court 4 where Takeuchi had a chance to close out the match, but dropped the 2nd set.
 
ULM picked up its first point of the match on Court 1, and the remaining three singles matches all headed to a 3rd set at around the same time before Chileno iced things. The other two matches were left unfinished, but Pons held a 4-2 lead and was serving up 30-15 on Court 2, and Takeuchi was also serving up 30-0 and 5-3 in her final set.
 
That sets up a rematch of a regular-season matchup in late March with Georgia Southern which the Mavs won in Statesboro, 4-2. Fans can follow along with the semifinal action in a myriad of ways: watch on ESPN+, listen on Radio Tennis, track live scoring on Tennis Ticker or engage on Twitter @UTAMavsTennis.
 
2019 SUN BELT TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL RESULTS
Singles
1. Maria Alfaro (ULM) def. Momoka Horiguchi (UTA): 6-4, 6-3
2. Carla Pons (UTA) vs. Shivani Manjanna (ULM): 4-6, 6-4, 4-2 (Unfinished)
3. Lucia Natal (UTA) def. Tiffany Phaysouphan (ULM): 6-1, 6-0
4. Nanaka Takeuchi vs. (UTA) Jimena Garbino (ULM): 6-3, 1-6, 5-3 (Unfinished)
5. Liz Chileno (UTA) def. Angeles Cueto (ULM): 3-6, 6-4, 6-2
6. Almudena Boza (UTA) def. Florencia Salerno (ULM): 6-0, 6-4
Order Of Finish: 3, 6, 1, 5
 
Doubles
1. Takeuchi/Chileno (UTA) def. Manjanna/Cueto (ULM): 6-3
2. Pons/Horiguchi (UTA) def. Alfaro/Salerno (ULM): 6-2
3. Boza/Natal (UTA) vs. Phaysouphan/Garbino (ULM): 5-2 (Unfinished)
Order Of Finish: 2, 1