THIBODAUX, La. - The Nicholls State University women's tennis team fell its match against the defending Southland Conference Tennis champions Central Arkansas Bears, 6-1, on March 5 at the Colonel Tennis Complex. 

"There were some bright spots against the defending champs today. We were extremely close in doubles and had some great opportunities to get the lead. But it slipped away," Head Coach Greg Harkins.

The Colonels lost courts 5, 2 and 4, then won court 6 and fell in the final two.

Morgan Forshag was the lone scorer for the Colonels when she defeated Sumomo Hamanaga 6-0, 6-4 in her singles match.

Simona Maksimovic won the first game of her singles match against Chunxi Xin, but fell in the final two games. Carla Bouygues fell short in her match against Uada Vasupongchai 7-5, 6-3.

"Morgan deserves a lot of credit for being the anchor at line 6, closing out her match. Simona went the distance with a top-ranked player and Carla was in there, too," Harkins said.

The Colonels fell in all three doubles matches, but Nikita Pinto and Forshag came close to winning court 3 when they scored 7-6 (7-4).

"There aren't any easy matches. It's a very competitive and deep conference, and we've got another really tough match on Sunday. But the girls are determined and they'll keep fighting," Harkins said.

The Colonels' record fell 2-6, 0-3 SLC. Their next match is Sunday, March 7 at the Colonel Tennis Complex.