DALLAS – As the Northwestern State tennis program nears the midway point of its fall schedule, the competition heats up this weekend at the three-day SMU Red and Blue Challenge.
 
The national tournament welcomes in teams from across the nation as a handful of Lady Demons will compete at the Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex starting Friday. The event runs through Sunday.
 
"This is a great event at SMU with great teams from everywhere," said NSU tennis coach Jonas Brobeck. "We'll be getting some really high-level matches against quality opponents before we head to ITA Regionals the following week, which is the biggest tournament of the fall.
 
"This is perfect preparation for that."
 
Freshman Tjasa Klevisar is 6-0 in singles action this fall after winning three matches at the Second UCA Fall Invitational this past weekend.
 
Klevisar joins sophomore Mariella Minetti, freshman Rozalie Dohnalova, sophomore Gig Kanaphuet and freshman Ayu Ishibashi with a winning or even singles record this fall.
 
"Tjasa is playing very well, is very coachable and listens really well," Brobeck said. "She learns from her matches, and it's wonderful to see her development.
 
"There are some things she didn't do great in the first match at UCA, but she developed that and worked on it in the other matches. Other girls are playing well, too, and the beauty of college tennis is that when some players are playing well, it can transition to other players on the team, and we're seeing that right now."