NATCHITOCHES—Northwestern State tennis begins Southland Conference play with a pair of home matches, with the first being against the defending co-champion Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Friday at 1 p.m. at the Jack Fisher Tennis Complex.

Also scheduled is a visit from Lamar Sunday at 11 a.m.

Northwestern State (6-2) finished third in the SLC last year at 8-3. This A&M-CC match, like every contest against the Islanders this decade, will have conference championship implications.

"We have a really good rivalry with Corpus Christi," head coach Patric DuBois said. "We always have tightly contested matches against them. Regardless of who won, it is always generally a 4-3 score.

"There is always good tennis played between these two teams and I don't expect anything different on Friday."

The Islanders have at least won a share of the conference regular season crown four of the last five years, including the last three. The Lady Demons have played in seven of the decade's nine Southland Tournament Finals.

The teams met twice last year. The Islanders won the first contest 4-3 in the regular season finale, but the Lady Demons rebounded to defeat them in the rematch 4-3 in the SLC Tournament semifinals.

NSU is coming off a 4-0 defeat at the hands of North Texas that ended a six-match winning streak. Texas A&M-CC (6-2) handily won its last match against UTSA 6-1.

"This match will not be easy," junior Ela Iwaniuk said. "We will need to trust ourselves right from the beginning and play well throughout the whole match. We have to try to let them not do anything well."

Junior Judit Castillo Gargallo dropped her first contest last Friday at North Texas, but after falling 6-0 in the first set, she narrowly lost in the second set against UNT's Minying Liang, who is ranked No. 114 in the ITA rankings.

Sophomore newcomer Patrycja Polanska has rebounded strongly from a season opening defeat, going 5-0 since with two matches that were not finished.

In her final conference opener, senior Polina Mutel tries to build on last year's 10-1 conference singles record. She played like the reigning Southland Player of the Year against the Mean Green, as she went to-to-toe with the No. 57 ranked player in the ITA rankings, Tamuna Kutubidze.

Mutel dropped the first set 6-2 before rebounding to win the second set 6-4. The battle went unfinished, as UNT clinched the outcome by scoring fourth point before Mutel's match got deep into the third set.

On Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's coaching staff is Olga Bazhanova, who was a great player for the Lady Demons before becoming first assistant coach, then head coach at NSU from 2015-17. She departed to marry Steve Moore, the Islanders' director of tennis and head coach.

In her first year as head coach, she led the Lady Demons to their second NCAA Tournament appearance in three years. As a player, she was a two-time first team All-SLC in doubles, and is sixth in school history in career doubles victories.

Lamar (3-7) plays Friday at Central Arkansas, after sweeping Prairie View A&M in a doubleheader in its last action.

NSU returns the road next weekend, when the Lady Demons play at Nicholls March 8 at 1 p.m. and New Orleans March 10 at 11 a.m. The next home match is an 11 a.m. first serve March 16 against Central Arkansas.