SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State tennis team opened their Sun Belt Conference schedule with a heart-wrenching 4-3 loss at Arkansas State on Sunday morning at the A-State Tennis Complex.
 
The Red Wolves jumped out to an early 1-0 lead when the Bobcats dropped a pair of highly contested doubles matches. The first setback came when Andrea Fuchs and Sofia Murcia-Rodriguez suffered a 6-3 loss against Nejla Zukic and Yasmine Humbert in the No. 3 doubles match. Then, Chacadyah Israel-Lewis and Nikita Pradeep fell 7-5 against Shelby King and Jill Morse on the No. 2 Court.
 
The Bobcats fell behind 2-0 when Rishona Israel-Lewis dropped a 6-4, 6-0 decision in the No. 2 singles match.
 
However, Texas State fought back to tie the score at 3-3 when the Bobcats won three of the next four decisions in singles matches.
 
Pradeep scored Texas State's first team point when she won 6-3, 6-3 on court No. 3. The Red Wolves increased their lead to 3-1 when Renata Gonzalez fell, 6-1, 6-4 against Yasmin Humbert of Arkansas State.  
 
The Bobcats came back to tie the score at 3-3 when Fuchs defeated Shelby King on the No. 4 court, and Hana Kvapilova won 6-2, 7-6 after winning the tiebreaker 7-4 in the second set of the top-seeded match.
 
The deciding point in the match came on the No. 5 court where C. Israel-Lewis fell in three sets against Zukic. Zukic and Israel-Lewis split the first two sets, with each player winning, 6-2. However, Zukic won the third set, 6-3, and clinched the Red Wolves' victory.
 
The loss evens Texas State's overall record at 4-4. The Bobcats play three matches this week when they travel to Austin for a match at Texas on Friday at 9 a.m. Texas State will play its first two Sun Belt Conference home matches of the season against ULM on Mar 13 and Louisiana on Mar 14 at the Bobcat Tennis Complex. Both home matches begin at 10 a.m.