Box Score PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. – Facing the team which knocked off the #1 seed in the Sun Belt Tournament quarterfinals, the 4th-seeded UT Arlington women's tennis team couldn't stop 8th-seeded Georgia Southern's momentum as the Mavericks were dealt a 4-1 indoor setback in the semifinals on Saturday at Peachtree Tennis Center.
 
In a match which lasted 5 hours and 20 minutes, the Mavericks kept things competitive and were in, or heading toward, 3rd sets in all three remaining singles matches until a victory on Court 4 sealed the win for the Eagles.
 
After waiting an extra day due to weather and a leaky roof, Lucia Natal picked up the lone point of the match for UTA with a straight-set singles victory on Court 3.
 
UTA held early leads on courts 1 and 3 in doubles, but Georgia Southern battled back on both. However, it was Court 1 where the Eagles came back from down a break, 3-4, to win the last three games, claim a 6-4 win over Liz Chileno and Nanaka Takeuchi and then moments later took the doubles point with a 6-3 victory on Court 2 over Carla Pons and Momoka Horiguchi.
 
Almudena Boza and Natal mounted a comeback of their own and were serving with a 5-4 lead on Court 3, but it didn't matter as Georgia Southern took a 1-0 advantage in the match.
 
Singles action commenced with three matches simultaneously as the indoor facility has just six courts, with the other three being used for the other semi between 2nd-seeded South Alabama and 6th-seeded Georgia State – thus the reason for the lengthy match.
 
UTA evened things up quickly in singles as Natal earned the victory on Court 3, 6-4, 6-2, to tie the match at 1-1.
 
Shortly after Natal's triumph, Pons forced a 3rd set on Court 2 with an impressive 6-3 bounce-back win in the 2nd set after letting a 5-2 lead in the 1st set slip away. Also forcing a 3rd set was Horiguchi on Court 1 with a tiebreak triumph after dropping the 1st set, 4-6.
 
However, both Horiguchi and Pons dropped their final sets by identical 2-6 scores, and the Eagles took a 3-1 lead in the contest as the remaining three singles contests took the courts.
 
The first one was on Court 4, where Takeuchi relinquished an early lead, but came back to emerge with a 7-6 tiebreak win to give the Mavs a little bit of hope. Shortly thereafter, Chilena rebounded from a 1st-set loss to post a 6-1 2nd-set win and extend the match to a 3rd set. Boza was poised to do the same as she held a 5-2 2nd-set lead after dropping the 1st.
 
But, that would all be moot as Court 4 was won by Georgia Southern's Luisa Hrda 6-7, 6-2, 6-4, to ice the match on a cool day.
 
The match was originally scheduled to be contested outdoors at 10 a.m. Eastern (9 Central) on Friday, but on Thursday night that match – along with the other women's semi – was moved indoors and up one hour to 9 a.m. Eastern to accommodate the length of matches with only six covered courts.
 
However, roof leaks delayed play on Friday morning, and at around 10 a.m. local time a decision was made to postpone both semis until Saturday to prepare the indoor courts for the men's tournament – which had not begun at the time – later on Friday.
 
The loss brings to an end the Mavs' season, but not before they finished with a 16-9 record and reached the Sun Belt Tournament semifinals.
 
2019 SUN BELT TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL RESULTS
Singles
1. Arianne de Winter (GS) def. Momoka Horiguchi (UTA): 6-4, 6-7, 6-2
2. Emilia Bujan (GS) def. Carla Pons (UTA): 7-5, 3-6, 6-2
3. Lucia Natal (UTA) def. Paula Boixader (GS): 6-4, 6-2
4. Luisa Hrda (GS) def. Nanaka Takeuchi (UTA): 6-7, 6-2, 6-4
5. Liz Chileno (UTA) vs. Mila Hartig (GS): 5-7, 6-1, 1-0 (Unfinished)
6. Almudena Boza (UTA) vs. Elizabeth Goines (GS): 3-6, 5-2 (Unfinished)
Order Of Finish: 3, 2, 1, 4
 
Doubles
1. de Winter/Bujan (GS) def. Takeuchi/Chileno (UTA): 6-4
2. Boixader/Hrda (GS) def. Pons/Horiguchi (UTA): 6-3
3. Boza/Natal (UTA) vs. Truscott/van Diemen (GS): 5-4 (Unfinished)
Order Of Finish: 1, 2