ABILENE - Abilene Christian's women's tennis team will look to remain atop the Southland Conference standings this weekend as the Wildcats play host to Northwestern State and Stephen F. Austin at the Eager Tennis Pavilion.
ACU (11-2, 3-0 SLC) will take on the defending Southland tournament champion Lady Demons Friday at 10:30 a.m. and the Ladyjacks Saturday at 10 a.m. Temperatures are expected to reach 84 degrees Friday and a high of 60 degrees on Saturday.
Northwestern State (11-3, 4-0 SLC), which won last year's tournament title as its No. 4 seed, is one of three conference unbeatens alongside ACU and McNeese State and come to Abilene riding a nine-game winning streak.
2013 all-conference selections Polina Konop and Tatiana Larina lead Northwestern State from the top-two positions and have a combined singles record of 13-12; however, Konop has won her last five decisions at No. 1 and is 6-1 there overall.
The Lady Demons also are very strong in doubles much like the Wildcats and have accumulated 24 victories between their three pairings. Konop and Larina are 8-3 together at No. 1, while the No. 2 duo of Natalya Krutova and Kateryna Piatakova is 9-1.
ACU has won its last seven doubles points, which includes four consecutive sweeps over teams from Cleveland State, Incarnate Word, New Orleans and the defending regular season champions from Southeastern Louisiana. That point against the Lions did not come easily as the Wildcats were forced to win in a tiebreaker at all three positions.
The No. 1 team of Micah and
Kaysie Hermsdorf rallied back from a 3-0 deficit to win 8-7 (5), while the No. 2 duo of
Brittney Reed and
Erin Walker won 8-7 (8) after losing the first four points. And at No. 3, senior
Emily Conrad and sophomore
Nada Marjanovic won five of the last six points in flipping a 6-3 deficit into an 8-7 (6) triumph.
In winning all 12 of its doubles matches during their Spring Break, the Wildcats lifted their season doubles record to 31-6 (.838). The Hermsdorf sisters are undefeated in dual competition at 12-0. Reed and Walker are 10-3, and Conrad and Marjanovic are 9-3.
Marjanovic continues to lead the Wildcats' in singles victories with 13 as she extended her winning streak to seven last week with four-consecutive straight-set wins at No. 5. Her last defeat was a three-set decision against Dominique Dulski of New Mexico back on Feb. 15.
Senior
Micah Hermsdorf is second on the team with 10 victories with all of those coming at the No. 1 position. She started last week with three-straight victories before dropping a closely contested battle against first team all-conference selection Renee Villarreal of SLU, 7-5, 7-6 (8).
But after Hermsdorf lost her match, which trimmed the Wildcats' lead over the Lions to 3-2, junior
Brittney Reed clinched the dual with a three-set victory at No. 2 against Nastya Tokareva, 7-6, 4-6, 6-1. Freshman
Erin Walker then followed with a 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 win over Reginka Nychytailov at No. 4.
Stephen F. Austin is near the top of the Southland standings with a 3-1 conference record and 6-6 overall mark. The Ladyjacks went 2-1 last week as they bookended a 4-3 loss to Corpus Christi with wins over Cleveland State and Incarnate Word.
SFA is led at the top of its order by Denise Maxi in singles and by the duo of Malena Gordo and Julia Lorca in doubles.
Last year's Ladyjacks finished fifth in the conference with a 5-4 record and was eliminated in the first round of the tournament by the Lady Demons.
