BATON ROUGE – The spring dual match season, which culminates with the Southland Conference Tournament in late April, begins at 37^th-ranked LSU Saturday morning for reigning Southland women's tennis regular-season champion Northwestern State.
 
Doubles play begins at 10 a.m. at the W.T. Robinson Tennis Center on the LSU campus. Next week, the Lady Demons open their home schedule with matches Tuesday at 1 against UL Monroe and Friday at 1 against Louisiana Tech at the Jack Fisher Tennis Complex.
 
Saturday's competition is the dual match debut for NSU under first-year coach Olga Bazhanova, one of the program's top all-time players during her career from 2009-12. LSU (3-1) won 4-3 over No. 59 Boston College last weekend.
 
Senior Tatiana Larina will lead NSU (20-6 last year). She and sophomore Aliona Ladutska won the Flight 1 doubles title two weeks ago at the Florida Gulf Coast Spring Invitational.
 
"We are looking forward to play against a Southeastern Conference school which is ranked in the top 40 teams in the country. It will be a challenging match and a good test for us," said Bazhanova. "LSU is well-coached and a tough team to play. We have to do the right things and have a good process during the whole match to win."
 
Alongside Larina/Ladutska in the No. 1 doubles slot, the Lady Demons will send out Natalya Krutova and Barbora Kollarova at No. 2 and Emily Kerr and Polina Ivanova at No. 3.
 
NSU's singles lineup starts with Larina at No. 1, followed by Krutova, Ladutska, Kollarova, Ivanova, Kerr and Maria Vlaskina.
 
While opening the season on the road at LSU is exciting, the Lady Demons are very eager to compete at home next week against two nearby rivals.
 
 "It is always good to play against the in-state teams.  UL Monroe and Louisiana Tech are both very tough and talented teams," said Bazhanova. "We are looking forward to playing in front of our fans at home next week."  
 
After next Friday, NSU's next home match won't come until Feb. 28.