COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Trailing 3-0 on the road at Missouri, the freshmen and sophomore quartet of Shannon Hudson, Yang Pang, Oleksandra Shkorupeieva and Flavia Araujo never wavered, dug in and began their fight willing No. 39 Arkansas to a 4-3 victory in on Sunday.
After the Tigers (5-12, 0-6 SEC) won the doubles point and quickly claimed two consecutive singles matches for a 3-0 lead, the young group of Razorbacks (8-9, 1-5 SEC) began their march back and helped UA secure its first conference win of the season.
Freshman Hudson set the tone and established early momentum, claiming a 6-3, 6-4, win versus Kelli Hine at No. 2 singles and gave UA its first team point of the dual match.
Pang kept the momentum growing, grinding out a 6-3, 2-6, 6-3, win versus Cierra Gaytan-Leach at No. 1 singles. She won her second consecutive SEC singles match and also avenged two prior losses she suffered to Gaytan-Leach last season.
Shkorupeieva answered the call next, as she stepped up and took care of Cassidy Spearman at No. 5 singles with a win in straight sets (6-3, 6-3) to tie the dual match at 3-3 with just one court remaining.
Tied 6-6 in the first set, Araujo pulled out a tight first set victory and went on to finish off Tracy Dong, 7-6 (8-6), 7-5, at No. 6 singles and clinched the dual match victory for the Razorbacks.
"This was a total team effort out here in difficult conditions today," Arkansas head coach Michael Hegarty said. "We have been very close to big wins like this and I give full credit to our players for only getting stronger the more we build further into this season.
"We have many more matches of this intensity ahead of us and I know we are excited for that challenge."
