Stephen F. Austin
Nicholls
Ladyjacks Travel to Louisiana for Two Southland Conference Matches
3/9/2018 9:29:00 AM | Women's Tennis
SFA hopes road trip yields first wins of 2018
Match 10
Stephen F. Austin (0-9, 0-2 Southland) at Nicholls (7-3, 0-1 Southland)
Saturday, March 10 | 1:00 p.m. | Colonel Tennis Complex | Thibodaux, La.
Match 11
Stephen F. Austin (0-2, 0-2 Southland) at McNeese (6-1, 2-0 Southland)
Sunday, March 11 | 1:00 p.m. | Nancy Hank Tennis Center | Lake Charles, La.
THE FIRST SERVE
• Hoping to put an end to a 14-match losing skid that dates back to the 2017 season, the Stephen F. Austin women's tennis team hits the road for Louisiana in order to continue its Southland Conference slate. This weekend, the Ladyjacks start in Thibodaux, La., at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday against Nicholls before closing the two-match road swing in Lake Charles, La., at 1:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon at McNeese.
• Three of the last five meetings between SFA and Nicholls have gone to the Ladyjacks including last season's 6-1 victory in Nacogdoches. SFA head coach Jon McLaughlin owns a 2-0 record against Nicholls as he prepares to face the Colonels for the third time.
• Against McNeese, SFA hopes to run its winning streak to two matches over the Cowgirls after posting a 5-2 win over their Southland Conference rival from Louisiana at the Schlief Tennis Complex on March 12, 2017.
• The start of league play has brought out the best in reigning Southland Conference Newcomer of the Year Kaja Ljubic. The junior out of Ljubljana, Slovenia, won her first two Southland singles matches this season and is now tied with sophomore Darinka Tiboldi for the team lead in singles wins (three). For her career, Ljubic improved to 9-3 (.750 winning percentage) with her one-on-one wins last week against Lamar and Sam Houston State.
• In doubles play, Gabi Guilarte and Siân Payne have posted four of SFA's nine wins by winning four of their six matches in the number-two flight. Nida Kamal and Darinka Tiboldi have also won four matches in the top flight doubles line.
SCOUTING NICHOLLS | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• Winners of their last two matches, the Colonels' match against SFA Saturday represents the midpoint of a three-match home stand that started Wednesday with a 7-0 non-conference victory over SIU-Edwardsville. Each of Nicholls' first three Southland Conference matches will be played ay home and after a 5-2 setback to Abilene Christian in the team's league opener on Monday, Feb. 26, the Colonels are hoping to even their Southland mark at 1-1.
• Despite boasting a roster of only six players, the Colonels haven't let that stop them from winning seven of their first 10 matches. Nicholls' seven wins are already the most for the squad in a single season since 2015, a year in which the Colonels went 20-5 and clinched a share of the Southland Conference regular season title with SFA.
• One of the strongest aspects of the Colonels' game has been their consistency in doubles matches. As a team, Nicholls is 17-7 (.708) in tandem battles with the number-two line team of Mariia Kozachok and Marina Vigil boasting a team-best seven wins en route to a 7-3 mark. On the third line, Anastasia Kuzevanova and Changwei Wei have won six of their first seven matches while top-flight team Stephanie Barnett and Lingfeng Gu are 4-3.
• Nearly half of the Colonels' 32 singles wins have come off the racquets of number-one line player Stephanie Barnett and third-line stalwart Mariia Kozachok. On a four-match winning streak, Barnett has posted a 7-2 record in singles play so far this season while Kozahok's 8-2 showing includes her team-best eight singles victories.
• Wei (5-5, number-five singles) and Kuzevanova (5-3, number-six singles) have each contributed to the Colonels' success in singles play, too.
SCOUTING McNEESE | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• Exactly halfway to their 2017 win total through the season's first seven matches, the Cowgirls have gone 6-1 which includes a pair of Southland Conference road wins over New Orleans (5-2, Saturday, March 3) and Southeastern Louisiana (7-0, Sunday, March 4).
• Defeating the Cowgirls in doubles has been a near-impossible task for the vast majority of McNeese's 2018 opponents. McNeese owns an impressive 17-2 (.895) record in doubles play this spring with the tandems of Phonexay Chitdara/Charoline Erlandsson (7-0) and Hannah Brett/Sarah Jurakova (5-0) owning unblemished records. The Cowgirls' only two losses in doubles have come on the number-two line where the team of Giovanna Fioretti and Marjia Mastilovic is 4-2.
• The Cowgirls' singles records are nearly as dominant as their ones in doubles. As a squad, McNeese has gone 32-8 (.800) in one-on-one play through the first seven matches of the season with Chitdara (6-0) and Erlandsson (6-0) both among the ranks of the unbeaten. • Jurakova is the third member of the Cowgirls' squad who has six singles wins to her credit this season and has posted a 6-1 records while competing exclusively in the number-two singles flight.
• Fioretti (5-2, number-one singles) and Mastilovic (4-3, number-three and number-four singles) are the only two Cowgirl players who have dropped a singles match to a Southland Conference opponent so far this season.
COMING UP NEXT
• The Ladyjacks' streak of facing six consecutive foes from the state of Louisiana continues next week when SFA returns to the Schlief Tennis Complex. While there, SFA will battle Southland Conference foes New Orleans on Friday before closing out the two-match weekend by welcoming Southeastern Louisiana to Nacogdoches on Saturday. Both matches are set to begin at noon.
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Players Mentioned
