NATCHITOCHES – In lieu of flowers, gifts or praise, Northwestern State's Patrycja Polanska has one request on Senior Day this Saturday.

Come fight alongside the Lady Demons on the path to a Southland Conference regular season title.

Of course fans aren't allowed on the eight-court Jack Fisher Tennis Complex, but Polanska said NSU's homecourt advantage and fan support feels like the NSU crowd is beside players on every shot.

The Lady Demons (12-4, 5-0 SLC), and NSU's home atmosphere, will surge against Nicholls (11-8, 3-2 SLC) for the 11 a.m. match Saturday. NSU last won a share of the conference title in 2014 with its last outright title coming in 2010.

Polanska will be honor in a Senior Day ceremony at 10:40 a.m.

"We're very grateful to compete on our court in front of people who support us," Polanska said. "You have this feeling that when we play in front of our fans, we feel like they are fighting with us.

"It's amazing to have this opportunity to win a championship on our home court, and I'm very happy to have this opportunity with my teammates. We're all extremely motivated for Saturday, and we can't wait to play, do our best and see what happens."
Polanska knows something about fighting.

Her tennis career was threatened by a wrist injury that affected her junior season and eventually forced her to miss 11 months.

The Polish native battled back to return to the court in February, where she's 7-1 doubles with freshman partner Ayu Ishibashi and has worked her way into the No. 6 singles position.

"Patti has meant so much, having been here for five years and is everything we want at NSU," said head coach Jonas Brobeck. "She goes to work every single day, and she's such a great human being and student.

"She's a winner on the court and a leader in the community. With a younger team coming in, she's leading and showing how Lady Demons are supposed to be on and off the court."

Polanska enters the final week of the regular season in 24^th all-time at NSU with a .680 doubles winning percentage (34-16) to go along with 24 career singles wins.

But just as important as on-court accomplishments, Polanska has guided a roster with seven other freshmen and sophomores, which includes three freshmen in the top four singles slots.

"The freshmen may be young, but they are very mature," Polanska said. "Since coming here, they've been very understanding and wanted to learn and be a part of the team from the beginning.

"We're very lucky to have freshmen who are motivated. They've fit very fast and were able to be close with us from the beginning."

The three freshmen are a combined 27-16 in singles play led by Ishibashi in the No. 4 slot, who boasts an 11-2 mark with a seven-match winning streak.

Tjasa Klevisar (9-5) has won her last three matches at No. 2 with Rozalie Dohnalova (7-9) feeling out the No. 1 spot, winning her last two.

Third-year sophomore Mariella Minetti (12-2, seven straight wins) and sophomore Viktorie Wojcikova (11-3, six straight wins) could complete an undefeated SLC season along with Ishibashi.

A win would give NSU an undefeated league record for the second time in SLC play (11-0 in 2010 as part of a 20-2 record). The Lady Demons did have perfect Gulf Star marks of 2-0 and 3-0 in 1986 and 1987.

NSU has four total regular season title in its tennis history.

The Lady Demons will face a scrappy Nicholls bunch that was undefeated in league play until this past weekend when the Colonels fell 7-0 at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

"We're super happy with where we are, but there's still a lot of work to do, and we have to have the mindset to take care of us," Brobeck said. "We'll prepare the best we can for a really tough Nicholls team.

"Our strength this season is that we can win at any spot in the lineup. We're coming together and doing everything we can to compete on every court and fight for our teammates. When we believe in our game, play aggressive and simple tennis with discipline, we're tough to beat. We're doing that in every spot right now."