NATCHITOCHES – Every Southland Conference match always counts, but when the league schedule has just six matches, each contest carries an even heavier weight. 

The Northwestern State tennis squad enters its weightiest week of the season as they host UIW on Friday and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Sunday. 

The Lady Demons (9-4, 2-0 SLC) square off with the Cardinals (7-7, 1-1 SLC) at 1 p.m. Friday before turning around and hosting the Islanders (15-2, 1-0 SLC) at 11 a.m. Sunday. 

NSU is the only 2-0 team in the league and could take a commanding lead in the conference title race with a pair of wins this week. 

"It's a big week ahead of us, and we're excited it's at home after having been on the road twice already," said NSU coach Jonas Brobeck. "The girls on our spring break, so we get to have the practice schedule that we want, which is nice. 

"It's a great time to truly prepare the right way, and it'll be great to sleep in our beds this week and play in front of our home fans." 

The Lady Demons continued their dominance in doubles and in the heart of the singles lineup in a win at New Orleans this past week. 

NSU hasn't dropped a doubles match in its last five outings, even sweeping doubles in a 6-1 loss at Houston on Feb. 28. 

"It's a thin line between playing very well in doubles but not overhyping it either because it's just one point," Brobeck said. "We have to continue to play aggressive and simple in doubles, and then play our hearts out in singles. 

"Really good teams find ways to win matches when they win doubles and when they don't win doubles." 

Winning the doubles point consistently means a team needs only three singles points to take a match. 

Those points have reliably come from the No. 3-5 slots, where NSU is a combined 27-7 this season. 

Mariella Minetti (9-2 at No. 3), Ayu Ishibashi (8-2 at No. 4) and Viktorie Wojcikova (7-3 at No. 5) have been the primary faces in those positions. 

"It's coming along better and better each week at every position, and one of the most rewarding things as a coach is when you see people do the right things, and you see it click," Brobeck said. "You see that the confidence is growing in the process, and they are seeing that this is what I need to do to be successful, and then it gets engrained in them to do it over and over and over again. 

"We're not 100 percent there yet, but it's also a good thing because we're winning against good teams without fully clicking. You don't want to peak too early in the season, and this week would be a great time to start playing at our best." 

Minetti has particularly been an example of that concept, winning her last four singles matches and six of her last seven. 

"Mariella was very good against UNO at understanding what she needed to change to turn that match around," Brobeck said of Minetti, who rebounded from a first-set loss to take the three-setter. "That's a big factor in competing, and it's great to see that maturity in Mariella to be able to problem solve throughout matches and turn them around in her favor." 

Ishibashi is also on a four-match winning streak in singles in which her opponent has won more than three games in just one set in that stretch.

Wojcikova has also built a singles winning streak, claiming the last three singles matches.

NSU will face a much improved UIW squad that has won two of its last three matches.

The Cardinals knocked off McNeese for the first time in school history Saturday to even their SLC record at 1-1. Even in a 7-0 loss to Texas A&M-CC, the Islanders needed a seventh point in two doubles matches and tiebreakers in three different singles matches to secure the victory.

First-year UIW coach Tom Rees is a former teammate of Brobeck's from UNC-Asheville, and Brobeck knows UIW is a program on the rise.

"Tom and I are close friends, and he's very good at getting his team well prepared," Brobeck said. "They'll compete at a very high level, and when a team is fighting hard, they're hard to beat.

"We expect a great match Friday."

A win Friday would set up a Sunday clash between arguably the two favorites in the league this season when NSU meets the Islanders.

Former NSU tennis player and coach Olga Bazhanova is an associate head coach with the Islanders, who roll into the weekend on an eight-match winning streak.

AMCC heads to Southeastern for a Friday match before making the Natchitoches portion of their trip.

Outside of a pair of 7-0 losses to a ranked Texas A&M group and Rice, AMCC hasn't allowed an opponent to score more than two points this season.

"They are a very solid team, and in order to win a conference title, you have to go through Corpus," Brobeck said. "It's a credit to the coaching staff and the job that Steve Moore and Olga have done.

"They are always super well prepared, and their teams are gritty and hard-working. We're going to have to earn it because they aren't going to beat themselves."