MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The Mulerider Women's Tennis team will travel to Arkadelphia for their season-opener against the Delta State Lady Statesmen on Saturday, February 4. Southern Arkansas will continue play on Sunday in Ruston as they take on the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters for the first time since the program's return in 2018.
Delta State was dealt a 0-7 loss on Friday on Henderson in Arkadelphia. The Lady Statesmen went 4-11 in the spring season last year with their final match being a 0-5 loss to Harding in mid-April. The Lady Statesmen returned Maria Caride, Marie Guillaume, Sofia Pepe and Adriana Subias from their 2022 roster and made the addition of Haley Rooles and Lucia Chocon.
The women have yet to play the Lady Statesman since the program returned. Delta State won their last meeting 9-0 in 2010 to conclude an eight-game sweep of the Muleriders spanning from 2001-10.
The Lady Techsters are looking to extend their two-game win streak, having recorded back-to-back 7-0 shutouts against Omaha and Stephen F. Austin. Through four dual matches, LA Tech is a combined 18-6 in singles with Leonie Schuknecht leading the way with a perfect 4-0 record at the top position.
The Muleriders and Lady Techsters last met in 2009 in an exhibition match that LA Tech won 6-0. They have met an additional 18 times with LA Tech owning a perfect 18-0 record in the series. The teams have yet to play since the revival of the tennis program at SAU as their scheduled meeting for this previous season was rained out.
Live stats for the Sunday matches can be found at LATechSports.com/Stats.
Southern Arkansas returns the service of two All-GAC performers from a season ago. First team selection Lena Milosevic and second team honoree Sarah Roy are back for Owen who carries a roster of ten into the spring season. The Muleriders will look to bounce back from a 5-17 season last spring which included a 2-3 mark in the GAC play. This past fall, SAU was solid at a trio of individual tournaments, including the Great American Conference championships. Milosevic claimed an individual flight title for the third time in her career and freshman Tamiya Lintz also won an individual flight championship. Roy nearly won the Flight 1 final after claiming two wins and then narrowly losing in a three-set match.
Inna Serpukhova, Kalley Smith, Greta Wallin and Honoka Yoshimura return for the spring and are joined by first-year Muleriders Lintz, Annika Berrendorf and Amber Young.
