Stephen F. Austin
Alcorn State
Ladyjacks Begin 2019 Season with Road Matches at Alcorn State and Jackson State
1/25/2019 11:47:00 AM | Women's Tennis
SFA under direction of new head coach Erin Scott
Match One
SFA (0-0) at Alcorn State (0-0)
Saturday, Jan. 26 | 1:00 p.m. | Alcorn, Miss.
Match Two
SFA at Jackson State (0-1)
Sunday, Jan. 27 | 11:00 a.m. | JSU Tennis Center | Jackson, Miss.
THE FIRST SERVE
• Under the direction of new head coach Erin Scott, the SFA women's tennis team starts its 2019 campaign on the road with matchups at SWAC adversaries Alcorn State and Jackson State this weekend.
• Six of the Ladyjacks' seven letterwinners from last season are back for 2019 including the squad's leader in singles victories Darinka Tiboldi. The junior posted a 10-11 record in one-on-one action in 2018 across flights one, two and three. Tiboldi was the only SFA player to rack up double-digit singles wins one season ago.
• Also returning for SFA are Vera Carvalo, Armelle Cerdan, Gabi Guilarte, Nida Kamal and Kaja Ljubic. Last season, Kamal and Tiboldi were the Ladyjacks' best doubles pairing, posting a 6-7 record. Those six wins were one-third of the team's total doubles victories (18-30).
• Making her SFA debut in 2019 is Kyndall Misak who had to sit out 2018 due to NCAA transfer rules.
SCOUTING ALCORN STATE | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS (2018)
• Coming off of a 8-15 showing in 2018, the Lady Braves are looking to build on the momentum they gathered up at the tail end of the previous season.
• Drawing the fifth seed in the SWAC Championships last year, Alcorn State bounced third-seeded Southern and second-seeded Prairie View A&M before falling in the title match to top-seeded Alabama State.
• Most of the Lady Braves' players from the previous season are back including the likes of top-flight singles player Bianca Birkenstock who went 7-8 and 4-2 in SWAC action.
• Playing across flights three and four in singles action one season ago, Alessandra Maganuco racked up an 8-10 record which featured a 4-3 showing in SWAC play.
• Alcorn State put up a combined 48-60 (.444) record in singles play and a 14-33 (.298) showing in doubles action during the 2018 season.
• Birkenstock teamed with Anastasia Vaganova to produce a team-leading four wins in doubles play.
SCOUTING JACKSON STATE | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS (2019)
• The Lady Tigers dropped their first match of 2019, 7-0, at Louisiana on Monday, Jan. 21.
• Jackson State's Nina Zhang posted a 6-4 win over Louisiana's Clara Mantaux in the number three singles flight. Mantaux, however, came back and won the next two sets to keep the Ragin' Cajuns' shutout bid in line.
• Zhang and Ariel Dickson played a close match in number three doubles. That Jackson State duo fell by a score of 7-6 (7-3) to Ai Noa Fabre and Hoda Habib.
COMING UP NEXT
• After spending the first week of the 2019 season on the road, the Ladyjacks return to Nacogdoches to make their home debut. On Saturday, Feb. 2, SFA plays host to non-conference foe Louisiana-Monroe at the Schlief Tennis Complex. First serve is set for 1:00 p.m.
-SFA-
Players Mentioned
