ABILENE - Despite being off from competition for close to two weeks, Abilene Christian's women's tennis team will seemingly pick up where it left off as the Wildcats will continue their four-match homestand against two more of the Southland Conference's best teams, Nicholls and McNeese State.
ACU's match vs. the Colonels is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. and its dual against the Cowgirls at 3:30 p.m. A men's dual between the Wildcats and Nicholls will start at 12:30 p.m.
When ACU (11-4, 3-2) last took to the courts of the Eager Tennis Pavilion the weekend of March 21 and 22, it suffered consecutive 4-3 defeats against the 13-4 Lady Demons of Northwestern State and Stephen F. Austin, which is 4-2 vs. the Southland Conference.
In its loss to Northwestern State, which snapped a seven-match winning streak, ACU dropped a rare doubles point followed by defeats at No. 5, 3 and 2 singles. And against the Ladyjacks, the Wildcats won the doubles point in rather convincing fashion, but couldn't carry that momentum into singles, where they lost four of their first five decisions.
Julia Lorca clinched SFA's win over ACU with a three-set win at No. 3 over
Kaysie Hermsdorf, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4.
Kaysie's older sister, senior
Micah Hermsdorf, won both of her singles matches that weekend, however, beating Lady Demon Polina Konop, 6-3, 6-4, and SFA's Malena Gordo, 6-7 (9), 6-3, 6-2. Micah - a former NCAA DII all-America - is now 12-5 overall this spring and 4-1 against conference opponents at the No. 1 position.
The Wildcats also have received consistent play from the back end of their lineup as No. 5 and 6 starters,
Nada Marjanovic and
Emily Conrad are a combined 8-2 vs. league opponents. And as the team's No. 3 doubles tandem, they are 12-6 and winners of five-straight matches.
ACU has played well in doubles throughout the spring (34-9, .791) additionally bolstered by a 15-3 record at No. 1 by Micah and
Kaysie Hermsdorf and 12-7 mark at No. 2 from junior Brittany Reed and
Erin Walker.
Nicholls comes to Abilene with a 10-5 overall record and 4-2 mark against the conference, which includes a 5-2 loss to McNeese State and 4-3 defeat to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on March 30 that snapped a five-match winning streak.
The Colonels have had three players compete at No. 1 singles, but received the best results from Stephanie Barnett at that position. Barnett is 4-2 at No. 1 and 10-3 overall this spring.
McNeese State starts the week at 11-5 and a half game behind conference leader Northwestern State with a 6-1 record against the league. The Cowgirls' lone conference loss was a 5-2 decision vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on March 28.
Klaudia Gawlik is 7-0 against SLC opposition and 13-2 overall at the No. 1 singles position, while she and doubles teammate Sara Castellano are 10-3.
Gawlik, Castellano (No. 2) and Julia Kral (No. 3) all have matching 13-2 singles records at their respective positions.
