MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The Southern Arkansas Men's and Women's Tennis teams open up play at home on the Live Oak Tennis Courts for the first time this season. Despite the schedule being altered, fans will still have an opportunity to catch both squads in action on Friday, February 25 at 2 p.m. as the Muleriders welcome in NJCAA power Tyler Junior College. SAU is scheduled for play Seward County Community College on Saturday at 2 p.m. Live video of select courts will be available with links found at www.MuleriderAthletics.com.
 
THE COURSE
This weekend's action will take place at the Muleriders' own Live Oak Tennis Courts. Since the rebirth of the SAU tennis program in 2017, the Muleriders have played well at home. In the 2018-2019 season, the Mulerider Women went 10-0 at home and that success continued during the 2019-2020 season as the Muleriders went 4-0 at home. During the 2021 season, SAU went 3-1. In three seasons in Magnolia, the Mulerider Women have a 17-1 record.
 
It is much of the same for the SAU Men. In their first year of competition, the Mulerider Men posted an unbeaten 9-0 mark on the Live Oak Tennis Courts. SAU won its only three matches at home in the spring of 2020 and last season the squad went 2-1 in Magnolia. Southern Arkansas won its first dozen home matches as an NCAA program and are 14-1 since 2018-19.
 
THE OPPOSITION
The Mulerider Women will face some tough opponents this Friday and Saturday as Tyler Junior College ranked 1st in NJCAA will be the first opponent on Friday at 12:00 p.m. Seward County Community College, ranked 5th in NJCAA, will be facing the Muleriders on Saturday at 2:00 P.M. The Muleriders have previously played Tyler JC in the spring of 2019, where SAU lost to Tyler 2-6. Tyler has several nationally ranked players in the JUCO rankings for both singles and doubles. For singles Lauren Anzalotta is ranked 1st, ranked 3^rd is Destinee Martins, ranked 7th is Abigail Wild, and rounding out the top 30 is No. 28 Mia Milojevic and No. 29 Yeva Kramarova. For doubles, Destinee Martins & Lauren Anzalotta are ranked 1^st, Abigail Wind & Patricia Apisah are ranked 3^rd and Hrudaya Shah & Yeva Kramarova are ranked 13th.
 
Seward also has nationally ranked JUCO players. For singles, Justine Lespes holds the No. 1 ranking, ranked 18th is Carol Mora Camacho and in the top 40 are No. 32 Camille Belberka, No. 35 Jimena Ramirez Llorens, and No. 39 Lucia Popluharova. For doubles Justine Lespes & Carol Mora Camacho rank 7th and ranked 12th are Jimena Ramirez Llorens & Camille Belberka.  
 
The Mulerider Men will have their hands full as well as both TJC and Seward both boast two of the top JUCO Men's teams in the country as well. TJC enters as the back-to-back-to-back NJCAA National Champion and the No. 1 team in the country, while Seward is ranked No. 3 nationally. It will be the first matchup for Owen against his former squad in SCCC since taking over in November of 2017.
 
TJC boasts three top 14 ranked doubles teams nationally. Diego Dalisay and Jakob Mosvold are the No. 1 pair in the country. Alvaro Saint Martin and Matt Shearer are ranked No. 4. Dalisay is TJC's highest-ranked singles player at No. 4 and four more players land in the NJCAA Top 15, including Emilio Vila at No. 6.
 
Five SCCC players are in the NJCAA's top 15 singles rankings with Luciana Fisicaro and Luke Quaynor ranking at No. 7 and No. 8 respectively. Juan Gonzalez holds the No. 10 ranking in the country. Karlo Krolo and Fisicaro are ranked No. 3 in double. Two more doubles teams rank in the top 11 of the country.
 
PREVIEWING THE MULERIDERS
Seven SAU women will compete in this weekend's games under the leadership of fourth-year coach Greg Owen. Lena Milosevic, Greta Wallin, Sarah Roy, Kalley Smith, Serena Gill, Simone Simas, and Honoka Yoshimura will be competing this weekend. In their most previous match against University of Texas at Arlington, the doubles teams of Milosevic and Wallin were victorious 6-4 at No.1 and Gill and Simone Simas won 6-4 at No.3. Simas won at No.5 in a three-set match failing in the opener 2-6, but beating Bruna Casasampere in set two with a score of 6-3 & in set three with a score of 10-7.
 
In their last trip to the court, SAU earned Owen and the program its first win over an NCAA Division I program with a 4-3 decision at UT-Arlington. Sophomore Ole Valkyser, the reigning MIAA-GAC South Division Player of the Week, clinched the match for the Muleriders over the Mavericks with a 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-0 decision over UTA's Ricardo Alban at No. 4. The duo of Yuri Gondouin and Valkyser are unbeaten in doubles play this season, while Sander Jans and Marko Nikoliuk are 3-1 this season in doubles play. Stuart Rehfuss and Sofiane Bah are 2-1. In singles action, Rehfuss is 4-0 while Jans, Nikoliuk and Valkyser hold 3-1 marks.