Stephen F. Austin
Northwestern State University
SFA Tangles with Northwestern State, Louisiana Tech
3/23/2018 11:41:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Ladyjacks play at NSU before facing Louisiana Tech at home Sunday
Match Fourteen
Stephen F. Austin (1-12, 1-5 Southland) at Northwestern State (10-5, 6-0 Southland)
Saturday, March 24 | 1:00 p.m. | Jack Fisher Lady Demon Complex | Natchitoches, La.
Match Fifteen
Stephen F. Austin (1-12) vs. Louisiana Tech (5-6)
Sunday, March 25 | 1:00 p.m. | Schlief Tennis Complex | Nacogdoches, Texas
THE FIRST SERVE
• Going toe-to-toe with the Southland Conference leader, the Stephen F. Austin tennis team crosses the Texas/Louisiana state line Saturday afternoon for a 1:00 p.m. battle at Northwestern State before closing out its weekend at home in a non-conference tilt with Louisiana Tech at 1:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
• The Ladyjacks, who won their first match of the season last Saturday at the Schlief Tennis Complex by downing Southland foe New Orleans 5-2, are hoping to avenge last season's 5-2 home setback to the Demons when they meet up with their longtime rivals. In their last trip to Natchitoches, the Ladyjacks exited with a 4-3 win over the Lady Demons on March 20, 2016.
• Junior Kaja Ljubic remains the team's leader in terms of singles wins (six) despite seeing her five-match winning streak come to an end last Sunday in the Ladyjacks' 4-3 league loss to Southeastern Louisiana. Ljubic is 5-1 in Southland Conference singles matches this season.
• Sophomores Gabi Guilarte and Darinka Tiboldi now hold the longest singles winning streaks on the team. Both have won two one-on-one matches in a row with Tiboldi's two wins coming on the second line where she is 3-0 this season. Guilarte's pair of victories have come in the number-one singles flight and are her first two wins of 2018.
• Ljubic and Armelle Cerdan are in the midst of a two-match winning streak in doubles play. That pair evened their 2018 doubles record at 2-2 by winning back-to-back tilts on the number three line.
SCOUTING NORTHWESTERN STATE | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• Since dropping four of their first five matches to begin the 2018 campaign the Lady Demons have reversed their fortunes in a major way. Winners of six straight and nine of its last 10 matches, Northwestern State has vaulted to the top of the Southland Conference standings by way of a 6-0 record in league play and is the only team in the league that has 10 or more total triumphs to its credit.
• Six of the Lady Demons' wins this season have come on their home courts at the Jack Fisher Lady Demon Complex where the squad has yet to lose a match. Saturday's match with SFA marks the end of a three-match home stretch for Northwestern State, too.
• Each of the last three Southland Conference Player of the Week award winners have been Lady Demons with senior Polina Ivanova being the most recent. On the number-two singles line, Ivanoa has put together an 8-4 showing that has helped the Lady Demons post a collective 47-38 record in singles tilts.
• On the top singles line for the Lady Demons is Polina Mutel who is one of two players on the team's roster that have not suffered a Southland Conference singles setback. At 11-3 overall and 10-2 in the number-one slot, Mutel has won six consecutive singles tilts and together she and Ivanova have formed an almost unstoppable tandem on the top doubles line. That pair is 10-2 overall and 5-0 in Southland matches.
• Nine of the 11 singles matches Judit Castillo has taken part in have gone down as wins for Northwestern State's lower-flight singles specialist. Playing exclusively in either the fifth or sixth flight, Castillo ranks second on the team in total singles wins and has yet to drop a Southland Conference singles match (6-0). Ela Iwaniuk (7-7, 5-1 Southland) is riding a five-match winning streak in singles play and competes on either line three or line four for the Lady Demons.
• In all, the Lady Demons are 21-16 in doubles play which includes an impressive 12-2 record in Southland matches. Northwestern State's prowess in singles matches has yielded a 27-9 record for the squad in Southland one-on-one bouts.
SCOUTING LOUISIANA TECH | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• Sunday's match in Nacogdoches represents the seventh of nine consecutive non-conference matches for Louisiana Tech as well as the endpoint of a three-match road trip. Depending on their result against Houston Saturday, the Lady Techsters could be looking to end a three-match skid or make it two wins in a row when Sunday's non-conference showdown begins.
• Sonia Chen has played in four of the six singles spots this season and has piled up a team-high eight singles wins for her efforts. Exactly half of the squad's 30 total singles triumphs have been accumulated by Chen and Nadja Manjon (7-5) who has competed on lines one, two and three at some point in 2018.
• Chen represents one half of the Lady Techsters' most consistent doubles team, too. When playing alongside Claudia Oravcova, that pair has gone 6-2 and has produced exactly half of Louisiana Tech's 12 doubles triumphs in dual match play. Karla De La Luz and Andrea Perez-Lopez have provided Louisiana Tech with another degree of consistency in doubles as of late, too, having won back-to-back matches on the number-one line.
COMING UP NEXT
• In their lone match next week, the Ladyjacks hit the road for a long journey northwest in order to face off against Southland Conference adversary Abilene Christian. SFA is set to battle the Wildcats at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 31, at the Eager Tennis Center.
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