Razorbacks fly through to second round of SEC Championships

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — An impressive performance in singles action helped Arkansas to a 4-1 win against Missouri on Wednesday in the first round of the 2018 SEC Women’s Tennis Tournament at the Dr. Robert L. Barksdale Tennis Stadium.

The Razorbacks (8-15, 3-10 SEC) surrendered the doubles point, but used four consecutive singles victories in straight sets to secure the overall team win over the Tigers (13-17, 0-13).

“Today was a very strong performance,” Razorbacks coach Michael Hegarty said. “Tons of credit to Missouri, they have been so close to a lot more wins this year and their coaches and players are doing a great job.

“This conference just has no mercy sometimes. The past two seasons we were at team match point on the eventual national champions (Vanderbilt, 2016; Florida, 2017) and still we went a month both seasons where we couldn’t win a conference match. So credit to both teams today, this was a quality match in the greatest league.”

No. 50 Giulia Pairone provided the clinching victory at the top spot, 7-6 (7-4), 6-0. With the win, she improved to 12-5 on this spring.

Mia Jurasic got the first singles win of the day at No. 3, a 6-1, 6-0 decision. No. 89 Ana Oparenovic then bested her opponent 6-4, 6-4 at No. 2 before Jackie Carr set up the clincher with a 6-4, 6-4 win of her own and her first ever against a conference opponent at No. 6.

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The Razorbacks will play No. 6 seed Auburn at 11 a.m. CT Thursday.