Stephen F. Austin
McNeese
SFA Sets Sights on Southland Conference Tournament Berth in Final Regular Season Weekend
4/11/2019 11:12:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Ladyjacks head to Louisiana to take on McNeese and Southeastern Louisiana
Match Nineteen
SFA (7-11, 3-6 Southland) at McNeese (9-8, 4-4 Southland)
Friday, April 12 | 1:00 p.m. | Lake Charles, La. | Nancy Hank Tennis Center
Match Twenty
SFA at Southeastern Louisiana (6-10, 3-5 Southland)
Sunday, April 14 | Noon | Hammond, La. | Southeastern Tennis Complex
THE FIRST SERVE
• On the hunt for its first Southland Conference Tournament berth since the 2017 season, the SFA tennis team wraps up regular season play on the road against two Southland Conference foes this weekend.
• The Ladyjacks' road trip sends them to Louisiana for showdowns with McNeese on Friday at 1:00 p.m. and Southeastern Louisiana on Sunday at noon.
• SFA is coming off a 4-3 Southland victory over previously league-leading Northwestern State last Wednesday at the Schlief Tennis Complex. The win puts the Ladyjacks a half-match behind Southeastern Louisiana and New Orleans in the all-important eight place spot in the Southland Conference standings. The top eight teams make the cut for the Southland Conference Tournament.
• SFA does not own a head-to-head tiebreaker with New Orleans should a fight for the eighth-place spot come down to that. Three-way tiebreaker scenarios regarding a tie between SFA, New Orleans and Southeastern Louisiana will not be known until New Orleans and Southeastern Louisiana play one another on Tuesday, April 16.
• Armelle Cerdan and Darinka Tiboldi head into this weekend's matches tied for the team lead in singles wins with eight each. The latter has put up a team-high four Southland singles victories. Together, they have been responsible for half of SFA's 32 singles victories.
• SFA's top doubles team continues to be the pairing of Gabi Guilarte and Kaja Ljubic. Together they have gone 9-8 in tandem play and have recorded nearly half of SFA's 20 doubles victories.
• Cerdan and Tiboldi have put forth four more doubles wins for the Ladyjacks who are seeking their first true road wins since March 8 this weekend.
SCOUTING McNEESE | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• In the midst of a four-match stretch of home matches, the Cowgirls head into Friday afternoon's showdown having won two straight tilts and three of their last five matches.
• Currently the Cowgirls sit in sixth place in the Southland standings with three regular season league matches left on their docket. McNeese leads Lamar by a half-match and is ahead of both New Orleans and Southeastern Louisiana by one full match.
• In singles action, Charoline Erlandsson represents the Cowgirls' top threat. She has accumulated a team-leading 15 singles triumphs, 12 of which have come on the number-two line where she has played most of her matches. She is one of three McNeese players who have turned in a team-leading six Southland singles victories.
• Marija Mastilovic has been a force on the number-three singles line, posting a record of 13-4 in that slot this year. That record includes a 6-2 showing against Southland foes.
• In addition to Erlandsson and Mastilovic, Dalia Ahmed (10-3) and Carlotta Romano (10-6) have also hit double-digits in terms of singles victories. Ahmed owns a 6-1 record in Southland matches and has played on lines four, five and six this season.
• As a team, the Cowgirls are 63-39 in singles action and 19-25 in doubles play. That doubles record includes an 8-12 mark in Southland action with three of those league doubles victories coming courtesy of Mastilovic, Stella Carra pairing (4-4).
• Giovanna Fioretti and Romito are 3-1 and 2-0 in Southland play with their three wins coming in the number-two spot. Fioretti and Ahmed have also teamed up in doubles play, scoring a team-leading five doubles victories when playing together.
• McNeese is 3-2 (.600) against SFA in the last five matchups between the two programs.
SCOUTING SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• Like SFA, Southeastern Louisiana is fighting for a spot in the Southland Conference Tournament and heads into the weekend a with a half-match lead over the Ladyjacks for the eighth-place spot. The Lady Lions and New Orleans are tied for the eighth-place spot with identical 3-5 records in league play and have not yet played one another.
• In the midst of a four-match home stand, the Lady Lions last action came on Sunday, April 7, when they handed Nicholls a 5-2 loss.
• With a 31-49 (.387) collective record in singles matches, Southeastern Louisiana has relied heavily on the play of Putri Insani to give it a boost in one-on-one play. Insani is one of only two players who own singles record above .500 and she leads the team in both singles wins (eight) and Southland singles victories (five).
• Ceci Mercier owns a 6-5 mark in one-on-one matches which includes a 3-4 record against Southland adversaries.
• More often than not, Southeastern Louisiana has come up on the winning end of doubles action. The squad is 20-18 (.526) in tandem bouts and leading the way in that category is the duo of Mercier and Vicky Scholz. Playing exclusively on the number-two line, they have put forth a 6-1 record.
• Another strong doubles pairing for the Lions has been that of Insani and Ximena Yanez. They have put forth a 6-3 record in tandem play which includes a 4-1 record in Southland bouts.
• Southeastern Louisiana is 1-4 in its last five meetings with SFA. The Lady Lions' only win in that stretch came last season via a 4-3 result at the Schlief Tennis Complex in Nacogdoches on Sunday, March 18.
COMING UP NEXT
• SFA will need to wait until other results around the league come in throughout the weekend to see if they have a shot to make the Southland Conference Tournament. Should the Ladyjacks make the cut, they'll head down to Corpus Christi, Texas, for the three-day tournament which begins on Friday, April 26.
-SFA-
Players Mentioned
