NEW ORLEANS — The Northwestern State women's tennis team starts a much-anticipated 2019 dual match season at Tulane in a 10 a.m. match Friday against the Green Wave for the season opener for both teams.

The match was originally scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, but impending rain forced the teams to reschedule the match for a day earlier.

Reigning Southland Conference Player of the Year Polina Mutel leads a Lady Demon team that reached the 2018 SLC Tournament championship match. Last year, Mutel went 17-6 in singles, including 10-1 in SLC play, and 17-2 in doubles with a perfect 10-0 record in SLC play.

"Tulane will be great preparation for us," Mutel said. "It's always great to play against really good teams at the beginning of the season. It could bring up our confidence so we will be ready for future teams as well."

In last year's matchup, the Lady Demons dropped a 4-0 decision to Tulane in New Orleans.

After playing with just six eligible players in 2018, the Lady Demons will have eight to fill out the lineup sheet with sophomore Patrycja Polanska and redshirt freshman Rhea Verma at their disposal in 2019, and it makes a big difference, said coach Patric DuBois.

"It is not only important to have eight players available this year," DuBois said. "We have eight solid players that we are confident can win in our six singles and three doubles matches."

Spring competition began last weekend for four Lady Demons who competed at the SMU Mustang Mania Invitational, with Polanska, Verma, junior Ela Iwaniuk and freshman Antonia Blattner making the trip to Dallas.

"At SMU, it was a really good tournament, especially for the players who could not play last year," junior Emilija Dancetovic said. It was nice they were able to get a bit of college tennis experience before dual matches begin."

A strong fall season has put freshman Maria Skyba on the map, as she was ranked No. 114 on the ITA women's singles end of fall rankings. She is the first Northwestern State singles player to be ranked in the ITA rankings since Martina Rubesova in 2010.

Skyba made an immediate impact, winning her flight in the first two tournaments she played in, including winning the top flight in her second tournament at UL Lafayette. She won all seven matches she finished at Rice, Lafayette and at the ITA Regional at Ole Miss.

Iwaniuk was the 2018 Newcomer of the Year in the Southland Conference and looks to build on that success in 2019. In 2018, Iwaniuk won 14 matches, including nine in conference play.

She is coming off two consecutive strong performances, at the ITA Southern Regional in the fall and at the SMU Metroplex Mania Invitational. At the ITA Regional, she made it to the finals before falling to teammate Antonia Blattner. Last week, she finished with a 2-1 record at SMU, with three-set wins against BYU's Taylah Beckman and Northern Arizona's Emilie Haakansson.

In addition to Skyba, her fellow freshman Blattner also made a major impression in the fall, winning her flight in two tournaments, including defeating Iwaniuk in the ITA Regional Southern final, 6-1, 7-6. She dominated in that tournament, not losing a single set. Blattner also won the first tournament she took part in.

Junior Judit Castillo Gargallo was second all-Southland Conference at the No. 5 spot in 2018. As a sophomore, she was 15-5 in singles, including going 9-2 in conference play. Fellow junior Dancetovic looks to improve upon her 9-14 singles record from a year ago.

Polanska and Verma made their college tennis debuts last weekend and held their own, despite being put in difficult flights. Both players had one win at the SMU tournament, with Verma's coming on day one against BYU's Polina Malykh 7-5, 6-2, and Polanska's on the final day of competition against Northern Arizona's Madi Moore 6-3, 7-5.

"Our expectations are pretty high right now," Mutel said. "We expect a lot from each other, so we have to give everything at every practice and game, and we'll see where we're ranked at the end of the season."

Next week, the Lady Demons travel to Boca Raton for the Florida Atlantic Owl Cup, starting Jan. 25. Northwestern State has its first home match the following week when it welcomes UL Lafayette to Natchitoches on Feb. 2.