DENTON, Texas—The Northwestern State tennis team is looking for its seventh consecutive victory when it travels to North Texas for a Friday match at 1 p.m.

The Lady Demons (6-1) won both matches over the weekend, defeating NAIA No. 3 Xavier (New Orleans) 6-1 and No. 8 (NAIA) LSU-Alexandria 7-0. Redshirt freshman Rhea Verma led the way near the top of the rotation, as she went 4-0, winning both singles and both doubles matches. After losing her first two matches of the season, she has won her last five. The last time they have won at least six in a row was when they won seven in a row last season during conference play from March 2-24.

Sophomore Patrycja Polanska was the other Lady Demon to go 4-0 last Saturday as she won 6-3, 6-2 over Xavier's Farah Baklouti and backed that up with a 6-2, 6-1 win against LSUA's Patricia Perez. She and her doubles partner, Verma, added a pair of 6-1 doubles victories.

The depth has continued to play a major role in this winning streak. In NSU's seven matches, the Lady Demons have gone 3-4 at No. 1 singles, but 29-4 in Nos. 2-6.

Five players for the Lady Demons have singles winning streaks of at least four, led by Judit Castillo Gargallo's six. Both she and freshman Antonia Blattner are undefeated.

"Antonia has steadily improved since she came here in August," said NSU coach Patric DuBois. "We have her moving forward quite a bit, which is something she wasn't used to doing, and she's really comfortable doing.

"She's getting better every day at finishing points at the net, so we're really happy about Antonia's progress."

After tough defeats to open the season at Tulane, both Polanska and junior Ela Iwaniuk have each rattled off five straight wins. Iwaniuk dominated in her only singles match of the weekend, throttling Xavier's Yi Chen Pao 6-0, 6-1.

Freshman Maria Skyba has been the No. 1 singles player for the Lady Demons in the last five matches, and she is getting more comfortable in the top spot as conference play nears.

"I am becoming more established and I am getting more confident," Skyba said. "With every match, I am getting more experience and improving."

Doubles play has factored into their winning record as well, as NSU is a combined 16-2 in doubles matches, including 11-0 in No. 2 and 3 with the teams of Polanska and Verma (No. 2) and Castillo Gargallo and Emilija Dancetovic (No. 3). As a team, the Lady Demons have yet to lose a doubles point this season.

NSU will have its hands full with North Texas (6-4), which crushed Arizona 4-0 last Sunday. UNT is led by the No. 57 ranked singles player in the country, Tamuna Kutubidze. It also has the program's all-time leader in wins, Maria Kononova, at the No. 2 spot in its lineup.

"North Texas is a really good team," DuBois said. "We're really happy to have this challenge on Friday. We're going to find out where we're at."

While NSU has not lost a doubles point this season, it faces a stiff challenge, as the Mean Green feature the doubles team of Kutubidze and Kononova, which ranks 26^th in the country in the ITA doubles rankings.

NSU begins conference play March 1, as the Lady Demons welcome Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and former player and coach Olga Bazhanova to the Jack Fisher Tennis Complex.