The Lady Bisons tennis team suffered a 5-2 loss to Southeastern Oklahoma State University (SOSU) on Saturday, April 7. The defeat marked the team’s first Great American Conference (GAC) loss of the season. 

The Lady Bisons fell behind early by losing two of three doubles matches and lost four of the six singles matches. Harding’s two points came from a doubles victory by senior Laura Golubic and sophomore Arisa Takanashi who won 8-3, and a singles win by Golubic, who won 6-2, 6-2.

“I played well, but I could have done a little better,” Takanashi said. “I think we all gave our best shot against them, but they are a good team also and played better than us. If everyone played a little better, we could have taken the win.”

SOSU is currently ranked second in GAC standings with a conference record of 2-0, while the Lady Bisons are ranked third with a conference record of 2-1. Although SOSU has a higher rank, head coach David Redding was confident his team would come out on top.

“The match was very winnable for us, so it was disappointing and hard to swallow that we lost,” Redding said. “We had some good matches leading up to it, and we let it slip through our fingertips. They all gave great effort, (but) we just were not able to come out on the winning side.”

Although the team did not attain the victory, one of the bright spots of the match was Golubic reaching her 50th doubles win of her career. She is only the 20th Lady Bison to have ever reached this accomplishment, according to Harding Sports.

“I didn’t even know that was my 50th doubles win,” Golubic said. “(It) definitely sounds amazing to hear I have accomplished something like that and helped my team by doing so. Let’s keep them going.”

The Lady Bisons have three in-conference matches remaining, but Redding wants the team to approach one match at a time.

“I always say that the next match is the most important,” Redding said. “Since we lost our first conference match to Southeastern Oklahoma State, the next three are huge. We don’t have any margin for error if we want to win conference, but I want the girls to approach the match right in front of them and to not look down the road.”

The Lady Bisons tennis team has an overall record of 12-5. With only a few weeks left until the GAC tournament, Redding and the rest of the team said they are looking to finish the year strong. 

The Lady Bisons played Tuesday, April 10, and after being down 0-3 in doubles, came back and won the match.

The win Tuesday was the fifth time of the season that the Lady Bisons have come out on top of a 5-4 match.

After matches on Thursday, April 12, and Friday, April 13, the GAC Tournament will take place on April 18 in Bentonville, Arkansas.