NATCHITOCHES – Coming off a difficult weekend, the Northwestern State tennis team has a chance to rebound in front of the home crowd.

The Lady Demons are coming off two losses to start conference against Incarnate Word (5-2) and Texas A&M – Corpus Christi (4-3).

NSU (8-6, 0-2 SLC) begins a stretch of five consecutive home matches to conclude the regular season. The Lady Demons welcome Lamar for a 1 p.m. contest Friday and McNeese at 11 a.m. on Sunday.

"I want to see that we can compete at a high level and do the things that we do in practice and play well from start to finish," said head coach Jonas Brobeck. "When we do that, the Lady Demons are a really tough team to beat."

Trying to get back to her winning ways, Mariella Minetti has won her last two singles matchups. Minetti recorded the one point for NSU in the finished matches against UIW, winning 6-3, 6-4.

Dorota Szczygielska, a junior from Poland, is 10-5 in doubles with her partner Renske Ubachs. Szczygielska and Ubachs are 7-2 in the No. 3 spot.

Tjasa Klevisar has proven to be a dominant force for the Lady Demons in her second season at Northwestern State, as she is 10-4 in singles and 7-2 at the top slot.

The series between the teams has been close with Northwestern State holding a 22-16 advantage. The Lady Demons defeated the Cardinals 5-2 during the 2022 season and NSU is 8-2 against Lamar since 2014. However, Lamar won the previous meeting in Natchitoches, a 4-3 victory in 2021.

Lamar (9-6, 1-0 SLC) is coming off a 4-3 home win against Nicholls to open conference play. Overall, the Cardinals have won six of their past seven matches with the only loss coming to Houston.

In the victory against Nicholls, Lamar came from behind to win four singles matches to earn the triumph. With the contest tied at 3-3, Noelia Lorca won a three-set thriller to give the Cardinals the conference-opening win.

Megan Do leads Lamar, coming into the match at 9-2 in singles as a freshman, playing mostly at the No. 6 singles slot.