The Harding women's tennis team split singles action, but dropped the doubles point to lose to Southern Arkansas 4-3 at the Elliott Tennis Complex in Searcy on Saturday. Harding drops their first conference match of the season, falling to 2-1 in GAC play and 8-12 overall. Southern Arkansas improves to 8-12 on the season and 1-1 in conference action. 

The Muleriders opened the match in dominant fashion, winning at No. 2 and No. 3 by a score of 6-2 and were leading 5-2 at No. 1 when the match was stopped. 

The Muleriders went ahead 2-0 before Harding's Jing Jing Yang put the Lady Bisons on the board with a 7-5, 6-1 victory at No. 5. For Yang, it was her third consecutive victory. Karli Roux led early at No. 2, but eventually fell 7-6, 6-4 to Lena Milosevic at No. 2 to push the Mulerider's lead to 3-1. 

Lina Romero, the reigning GAC Player of the Week, dropped the opening set in her match, but rebounded and won fourth consecutive 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 at No. 3. Romero also picked up her 30th career singles victory. The Lady Bisons needed both remaining singles matches to win while the Muleriders needed just one. 

The Muleriders clinched the match with a hard fought win at No. 1. Rachel McCrae wrapped up her match at No. 6, grabbing the three set victory 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. 

The Lady Bisons will return home on Tuesday (April 11) to take on Arkansas Tech in a GAC matchup beginning at 2 p.m.