SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Northwestern State tennis team heads into its third tournament of the fall season, searching for a level of consistency.
 
The Lady Demons head to the River State Shoot-Out, hosted by Texas State, for three days of competition beginning Friday morning.
 
"(Last weekend at Rice) showed us that the good teams and the good players compete all the time, regardless of the score, regardless of the environment" fourth-year head coach Marcos Morelli said. "Our players realized that some matches didn't go their way, because mentally they went away in a couple of games. Those are things we have to get better at."
 
A pair of freshmen – Nico Tagami and Zala Vnuk – will take part in the third tournament of their first season of collegiate competition.
 
Tagami has posted a 5-1 singles mark in the first two tournaments while Vnuk went 4-2 in singles play at the Lady Demon Invitational and the Rice Invitational the past two weekends.
 
Tagami and Vnuk also have enjoyed varying degrees of success and adversity as a doubles pairing as they maneuver through their first semester of competition as college players.
 
The freshmen will be joined in the field by graduate student Zoi Spyrou and sophomore Martina Acebedo Bonocore in a tournament that will challenge the team on the court and in dealing with expected inclement weather that is forecast for central Texas.
 
"It's 100 percent normal and 100 percent part of the learning curve," Morelli said. "I'm glad it happened. I'm glad the last tournament exposed those areas, and the players felt it as well. We are all on the same page on what the approach is this weekend."
 
The same can be said for the fall as a whole.
 
"All these tournaments are well-run tournaments," Morelli said. "They're fun with lots of good players and lots of competition in both singles and doubles. The fall is super important – this fall especially – and we are all enjoying it a lot."