BOCA RATON, Florida—The Northwestern State women's tennis team wraps up tournament play with a trip to Boca Raton for the Florida Atlantic Owl Cup tournament this weekend, beginning Friday.

In addition to Northwestern State, Stony Brook, ASA College (Miami) and host school Florida Atlantic will participate in the tournament. ASA College is one of the top Junior College teams in the nation, having won at least 20 matches in two of the past three seasons and is coming off a 16-3 campaign.

The Lady Demons aim to bounce back after they dropped a tough opening contest in dual match play, losing 4-3 to Tulane.

Junior Judit Castillo Gargallo picked up right where she left off last season, winning in both singles and doubles against Tulane. In 2018, the Teruel, Spain, native went 15-5 en route to second team All-Southland Conference honors.

"This is going to be a tough tournament (at Florida Atlantic)," Castillo Gargallo said. "We're going to play a lot of matches and most everyone will play. It just prepares everybody because we have to play well all three days.

"This tournament will prepare us both physically and mentally, so we have to be prepared to give everything we have this weekend."

Against the Green Wave, she won her match at No. 6 singles, where she dropped the first set to Alex Alegre 7-5 before rebounding to win the final two sets 7-6, 6-4, to win the match. Castillo Gargallo, along with partner Emilija Dancetovic, won their doubles match against Alegre and Laura Fabrizi 6-3 to help the Lady Demons earn the doubles point.

Seven of the eight Lady Demons will be going to Boca Raton for the tournament, with reigning Southland Conference Player of the Year Polina Mutel the only one not participating. Mutel cruised in her singles match against Tulane's Elena Muller, winning 6-1, 6-2.

In her first dual match with Northwestern State, redshirt freshman Rhea Verma held her own against Fabrizi, winning the first set 6-2 before dropping a pair of nail-biting sets 7-5, 7-5. But Verma and her partner, sophomore Patrycja Polanska, won their doubles match 6-4 to help the Lady Demons win the doubles point.

"We just hope to continue what we do in practice," head coach Patric DuBois said. "We always work hard and we have a very good process on how we want to do things and we hope to continue that in match play at Florida Atlantic."

Northwestern State plays at home for the first time this season when it welcomes UL Lafayette to Natchitoches Feb. 2. It is the first of three home matches that weekend, as the Lady Demons also play Jackson State and LSU-Alexandria Feb. 3.