CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas—Following a second-place finish in the Southland Conference regular season, the Northwestern State Lady Demons tennis team opens the eight-team Southland Tournament Thursday at 10 a.m. against New Orleans, three wins away from an NCAA Tournament berth.
 
NSU (17-5 overall, 9-2 Southland) enters the conference tournament as the No. 2 seed, its highest ranking since it was the No. 1 seed in 2014. The 17 regular season wins are tied for the second in school history, and are most for the Lady Demons since 2014.
 
UNO (13-9 overall, 6-5 Southland) comes in on a four-match winning streak, including a 4-3 home victory against defending regular season co-champion Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
The Lady Demons prevailed 6-1 in the first meeting back on March 10 in New Orleans, with NSU claiming five of the six singles matches, four in straight sets.
 
"No matter what team we play, it's going to be challenging," said Rhea Verma, named Tuesday as a first-team All-Southland singles selection. "We know if we do everything right, we can beat any team in the conference. UNO is a great team and when we played them, we had really competitive matches and we had to find a way to win."
 
The winner of the match will play at 2 p.m. Friday against the winner of No. 3 Central Arkansas and No. 6 seed and defending champion McNeese.
 
If the Lady Demons reach their eighth Southland Conference Tournament championship match this decade, they will play at 2 p.m. Saturday. The teams on the other side of the bracket are top-seeded Abilene Christian, No. 8 Lamar, No. 4 Sam Houston State and the host, No. 5 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
"All teams in this tournament are very good," head coach Patric DuBois said. "Just because we beat someone in the regular season by a certain score does not mean they can't beat us by the same score in the tournament.
 
"Every team is capable of beating each other and it's going to depend on who shows up and plays well and executes that day."
 
Verma, a redshirt freshman who is unbeaten in the No. 3 singles slot in league play, is one of only two undefeated players in the conference. ACU's Allison Stewart is the other.
 
In addition to her 11-0 mark in league action, Verma tied for the best mark on the team overall at 16-4. Her unblemished Southland record is the first for the Lady Demons since Natalya Krutova went 10-0 in 2015. Verma went 8-0 at the No. 3 spot in Southland play and was 10-0 at that spot overall. The Toronto native carries a team-best six-match winning streak into the tournament.
 
Ela Iwaniuk earned her second consecutive all-conference nod, as she earned a second team honor this year at No. 5, going 10-1 in conference play and 8-0 in league action. In 2018, she was a first team selection at No. 4, going 9-2.
 
Judit Castillo Gargallo, for the second season in a row, earned a second team selection. This year, she went 6-2 at No. 6 in league competition to earn the second team nod. She has won her last two matches heading into the conference tournament.
 
The Lady Demons are led in doubles by the No. 3 duo of Castillo Gargallo and Emilija Dancetovic, which was named first team All-Southland. The pairing was 5-2 in conference action, holding four of the five duos they beat to two or fewer games.
 
Verma and Patrycja Polanska at the No. 2 doubles spot is 6-5 in conference and 13-7 overall. They are coming off a 6-3 win against Lamar.
 
"The trick is to execute on match day at each position," DuBois said. "That's been the trick all year. I feel like we're in a good place right now. We've had really good practices all week and we expect to execute at every position in singles and doubles."
 
UNO has three singles players who have won three or more consecutive matches heading into the conference tournament, led by Lea Alguacil at No. 6, who has won four straight and is a team-best 7-4, playing primarily at No. 6, but has played at No. 5 four times, including a loss to Iwaniuk in March.
 
Ank Vullings has played at No. 2 in all matches during UNO's current four-match winning streak, and has won all four in straight sets, including against AMCC's Kei Kato, who was honorable mention All-Southland.
 
The switch with Vullings in the rotation has worked for Trang Dao as well, as she has won her last three matches at No. 1 since the switch, including a victory against all-league honorable mention choice Putri Insani.
 
UNO's biggest strength is the No. 1 doubles team of Vullings and Dao, which was named first team All-Southland at that spot. However, one of those three losses was to NSU's top duo of Polina Mutel and Maria Skyba.
 
"The doubles point is crucial," Verma said. "It sets the momentum for the entire match. When you win the doubles point, you start with an advantage. You start with the confidence and it's easier to build on the lead rather than trying to fight back."