NATCHITOCHES – Despite a freshman-laden lineup, Northwestern State is off to a strong start as Southland Conference women's tennis play begins this weekend at home when Saturday, the Lady Demons host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 11 a.m. before Texas-San Antonio visits Sunday for another 11 o'clock match at the Jack Fisher Tennis Complex.
 
Lady Demons' freshman Polina Konop joins senior Olga Bazhanova with perfect 5-0 singles records, and the tandem is unbeaten at No. 1 doubles. Bazhanova was Southland Conference player of the week for the first week of the season and Konop claimed the honor Tuesday. They won their No. 1 doubles match Wednesday at Louisiana-Monroe, raising their record to 6-0, before rain suspended play.
 
NSU is 4-1 with four freshmen filling the lower end of the six singles slots. A&M-Corpus Christi is off to a 6-1 overall start, including a 1-0 league record, while UTSA is 5-3 overall.
 
The Lady Demons are 11-4 in doubles, 9-1 in the top two slots. Junior Andrea Nedorostova and freshman Tatiana Larina are 4-1 in the second position.
 
Larina, Nedorostova and Leesville freshman Amy Williams each have 3-2 records in singles competition. NSU is 21-9 overall in singles play.
 
Bazhanova has climbed into a tie for seventh all-time at NSU with a 52-18 doubles record, equaling the 52 wins from 1988-91 by Jane Patterson. Bianca Schulz set the career record by recording 67 victories while wrapping up her career last year.
 
Nedorostova has 43 wins, two shy of cracking the career top 10. Sara Jones was 45-33 from 1987-89. Nedorostova is an amazing 43-4 in her career, the all-time best winning percentage (91.4) by 10 points over Barbara Tons' 81.4 (57-13) from 1986-89. Bazhanova is eighth at 74.3 percent.