MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The Southern Arkansas Men's & Women's Tennis teams return to action on Thursday as league affairs against Harding await both of third-year head coach Greg Owen's squads in central Arkansas. The No. 24 Mulerider Men meet Harding for the second time this season after claiming a 6-1 nonconference win over the then receiving votes Bisons in Arkadelphia on February 27, while the SAU Women look to avenge a 5-2 nonleague loss to the Lady Bisons on that same day in late February. First serve for the Men's MIAA-GAC matchup with HU is set for 2 p.m. as is the Mulerider Women's GAC contest with Harding. Results will be made available at www.MuleriderAthletics.com.
 
The Southern Arkansas Men (7-3, 1-0 MIAA-GAC) are coming off a decisive 7-0 win over Oklahoma Baptist in the MIAA-GAC opener on Saturday in Shawnee. The win snapped a small two-match skid for the Muleriders that included a pair of losses to national-ranked opposition. It was SAU's third MIAA-GAC win since the conference's combined teams at the start of the 2019-20 season.
 
Three Muleriders have earned MIAA-GAC South Division Tennis Player of the Week honors this season with freshman Ole Valkyser serving as the league's reigning honoree and joining junior Sander Jans (3/8) and sophomore Yuri Gondouin (3/15).
 
Jans leads the Muleriders in singles play with a 9-1 record, including six straight at one point during the spring and Valkyser follows with an 8-2 mark. Freshman Sofiane Bah has recorded six singles wins in 2021. In doubles action, sophomores Marko Nikoliuk and Yuri Gondouin lead SAU with nine such wins. Valkyser and freshman Gabriel Breitenmoser have logged seven wins in doubles play, while Jans and Bah have won six times.
 
The Mulerider Women (5-7, 3-0 GAC) have found their groove here in the middle portion of the 2021 season. After opening the campaign with a 7-0 win over Ouachita, SAU lost seven straight matches with three of those decided by a single point and three coming to nationally-ranked foes. But the Muleriders ended the losing streak and have won four straight matches all by 6-1 scores and are an unbeaten 3-0 in GAC play. Thursday's Harding match serves as the first of three remaining regular season league matches as meetings at Arkansas Tech (4/5) and vs. Southeastern Oklahoma (4/7) will take place in the next week.
 
Sophomore Angela Vargas claimed the GAC's WTEN Player of the Week honors on March 17 to become the first Mulerider to win the award this season. After a 3-3 start to the season in singles action, Vargas has rattled off six straight singles wins. Freshman Honoka Yoshimura, a collegiate rookie from Japan, is a perfect 10-0 in singles play this spring with her first four victories all being decided in three sets. Freshman Sarah Roy has won four of her past five efforts in singles play. Sophomores Serena Gill and Lena Milosevic have six singles wins each in 2021.
 
Roy and freshman Kalley Smith lead the team with seven doubles victories and Gill and Yoshimura follow with six wins in doubles play.
 
Both of Owen's squads are 2-1 against Harding since the start of the 2018-19 season when Southern Arkansas revived the programs for NCAA competition.