Stephen F. Austin
Abilene Christian University
SFA Hits the Road to Face Abilene Christian in Final March Match
3/30/2018 10:14:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Ladyjacks will try to halt a three-match losing skid Saturday morning
Match 16
Stephen F. Austin (1-14, 1-6 Southland) at Abilene Christian (10-7, 4-3 Southland)
Saturday, March 31 | 11:00 a.m. | Eager Tennis Center | Abilene, Texas
THE FIRST SERVE
• For its final match in the month of March, the Stephen F. Austin women's tennis team heads to Abilene, Texas, for a Saturday morning Southland Conference showdown at Abilene Christian. First serve between the Ladyjacks and Wildcats has been set for 11:00 a.m. at the Eager Tennis Center and SFA will be attempting to put the brakes on a three-match losing skid when they start the match.
• Positioned on the number-six singles line, sophomore Nida Kamal has posted wins in each of her last two singles matches. That has upped her season record in dual matches to 4-9 and has her approaching the .500 mark in Southland Conference singles action.
• Junior Kaja Ljubic returned to her winning ways in singles last Sunday, too, moving to 7-6 with a win on the number-five line over Louisiana Tech's Andrea Perez-Lopez. In Southland Conference play, her five singles wins represent one-third of the Ladyjacks' team total.
• Paired with Armelle Cerdan in doubles action, Ljubic has helped give the Ladyjacks' third-flight doubles position a boost as of late, too. That pair has registered back-to-back wins and it 2-0 in Southland Conference play.
• The tandems of Kamal and Darinka Tiboldi (5-7) and Gabi Guilarte and Siân Payne (5-4) are tied for the team lead in doubles wins this season.
SCOUTING ABILENE CHRISTIAN | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• Returning to their home venue following a two-match Southland Conference road trip to Louisiana which yielded back-to-back wins, the Wildcats sit in sixth place in the league standings heading into their last two home conference tilts of 2018.
• The Wildcats notched a 4-3 win at New Orleans before closing out their perfect weekend by securing a 6-1 victory at Southeastern Louisiana the following afternoon. After suffering three consecutive setbacks to begin the month of March, Abilene Christian has won three of its last four as it vies for a spot in the upcoming Southland Conference Tournament.
• ACU has won its last two matches against the Ladyjacks, including last seasons 7-0 shutout victory in Arlington, Texas, that closed out the Wildcats' season.
• Nearly capturing the title of Southland Conference Women's Tennis Player of the Week Tuesday afternoon, Nini Memishishi serves as the Wildcats' best player in singles action. Playing across flights three, four, five and six at some point this season, Memishishi has posted a record of 12-3 in dual matches which features a near-perfect 5-1 showing against Southland Conference opposition.
• She is one of three Abilene Christian players who have collected 10 or more singles triumphs this season and is joined in that group by Lucile Pothier and Whitney Williams. The former has been a constant on the top singles line for the Wildcats where she has gone 10-4 in dual match play and 5-1 in league one-on-one showdowns while Williams has predominantly played on the second line. It is there that she has gone 9-6, helping her dual match record move to 11-6 with a 5-1 record in conference matches.
• Together, Memishishi and Pothier have teamed up to form a formidable doubles pairing on the number two line. They have gone 9-2 in dual matches which includes a 3-1 showing against Southland Conference competition.
• On line three of doubles, Williams and Ileana Mocciola are 2-1 and have won each of their last two matches but those two excel just as much when they are paired with other partners. Sarah Adams and Williams have played to a 7-3 dual match record on the top line while Mocciola and Autumn Crossnoe are an impressive 6-1 on the number-three tandem line.
COMING UP NEXT
• A busy three-day stretch awaits the Ladyjacks who open up April with three matches in the span of three days. That period begins Friday, April 6, at 1:00 p.m. from Prairie View, Texas, where SFA tangles with Prairie View A&M before returning to the Schlief Tennis Complex for its final two home matches of 2018. The Ladyjacks' adversaries for their last two home tilts are Incarnate Word (Saturday, April 7, 11:00 a.m.) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (Sunday, April 8, noon).
-SFA-
Players Mentioned
