NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Privateers women's tennis team will start their journey in the Southland Conference tournament on Thursday. They'll face the 2-seed Northwestern State Lady Demons at the Thomas J. Henry Tennis Center in Corpus Christi, Texas. The match is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.
The Privateers ended the season on a tear to qualify for the Southland tournament as the 7-seed. That included three wins in the span of a week against Lamar, Nicholls, and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Before that stretch, New Orleans was on the outside looking in at 2-5.
Three of those four wins came by 4-3 score lines. The Privateers' win against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi was the first since New Orleans joined the Southland.
Trang Dao and
Ank Vullings led a strong group of doubles teams for the Privateers. Dao and Vullings earned Second Team All-Conference recognition after a 14-4 season with an 8-3 mark against Southland opponents. In total, doubles teams were 37-22 against opponents this season.
Lea Alguacil and
Claudette Gilhespie went 7-3 on the season.
Northwestern State won the regular season meeting between the two sides on Mar. 10 by a 6-1 score.
Brittany Johnson scored the lone point for the Privateers that day with a three-set win at flight six.
This season, Northwestern State (17-5, 9-2) won their final match of the regular season, a 7-0 victory over UIW. That snapped a two-match losing skid in conference against Stephen F. Austin and Abilene Christian. The Lady Demons were 13-1 at home this year.
In the postseason awards announcement, three Lady Demons, Rhea Verma, Judit Castillo, and Ela Iwaniuk won all-conference recognition in singles. Emilija Dancetovic and Castillo also won second team honors in doubles.
The winner of the match will play either Central Arkansas or McNeese on Friday at 2 p.m.
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