MARSHALL, Minn. – The Southwest Minnesota State women's tennis team (2-4, 2-2 NSIC) will continue Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play on Friday taking on Minnesota Duluth (0-5, 0-2 NSIC) at 5 p.m. in Duluth. The Mustangs will then travel to Minneapolis to take on Winona State (2-2, 1-2 NSIC) at the Baseline Tennis Center on the University of Minnesota Campus beginning at 1 p.m.

About Southwest Minnesota State: The Mustangs enter the weekend owners of a 2-4 overall record while going 2-2 in NSIC play. SMSU is coming off a win and a loss last weekend after defeating Bemidji State 5-4 and losing 8-1 to St. Cloud State. Southwest Minnesota State is playing its final two games before the spring break trip to Phoenix, Ariz.

Trisha Baldwin owns a 4-2 record on the season at No. 2 singles. She has also compiled a 5-3 record in doubles play. Cailey Grupe is 3-3 at No. 1 singles for SMSU while teaming up with Baldwin for a 5-3 record in doubles play. Angie Wiegmann is 3-3 at No. 3 singles and Kasey Uran is 2-4 at No. 4 singles play. Uran and Wiegmann are 1-5 as a doubles tandem, while Mattison Peters and Kelsey Bourne are 1-5 in singles, and 1-5 as a doubles tandem.

About Minnesota Duluth: The Bulldogs are sitting in a four-way tie for ninth place in the NSIC standings with a record of 0-5 overall and 0-2 in conference play. Minnesota Duluth holds a 12-game lead over SMSU in the all-time series at 16-4. The two teams first met during the 1980 season. The last time the two teams met was on Apr. 11 of last season and SMSU beat UMD 8-1.

About Winona State: Winona State is currently in sixth place in the conference standings, one spot behind SMSU, with a record of 2-2 overall and 1-2 in the NSIC. The Warriors are coming off two NSIC losses to Augustana and Upper Iowa. SMSU is 22-13 all-time against Winona State and has lost 15 straight matches against the Warriors.

Last time out: Minnesota State University Moorhead took five out of six singles matches and all three doubles matches to down the Southwest Minnesota State women's tennis team 8-1 in NSIC play last Sunday in St. Cloud.

Trisha Baldwin earned SMSU's win in the match defeating Kathryn Neubauer 6-0, 6-4 this afternoon. Kasey Uran lost to Jenna Miller after picking up a 6-3 first set win. Miller came back to win 6-0, 1-0 winning the tiebreaker 10-4.

In doubles competition, SMSU lost two close matches. Kayla Huether and Alyse Grelson defeated Cailey Grupe and Baldwin 8-5 and Neubauer and Brenna Johnson defeated SMSU's Angie Wiegmann and Uran 8-6.

SMSU ranked in Central Region: SMSU is ranked 10th in the ITA Central Region rankings as of Nov. 9, 2010. The Mustangs are joined by NSIC foes Augustana who is ranked first, Upper Iowa (third), Winona State (fifth) and Minnesota State who is ranked seventh.

Fall competition: Southwest Minnesota State competed in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Central Region Tournament earlier this season in Denver, Colo. Trisha Baldwin and Cailey Grupe advanced to the second round of doubles action in the tournament. The pair defeated Augustana's Liz Lewis and Emily Johnson, 8-2, in the first round before falling to Upper Iowa's Courtney Romer and Anastasia Dabiza, 8-5, in the second.

Senior leadership: Cailey Grupe and Trisha Baldwin returns as the top doubles tandem for SMSU. Grupe finished the 2010 season with a singles record of 13-9 and a doubles record of 15-7. Baldwin was 16-5 in singles matches while contributing to the 15-7 record with Grupe. Baldwin has compiled a 36-29 career record at SMSU and Baldwin owns a career record of 41-35 in three seasons.

The coach: Charlie Kost enters his first season as head coach of the women's tennis program at Southwest Minnesota State. Kost takes over the reigns from George Seldat, who retired after 16 seasons as head coach. Kost comes to SMSU after having spent eight seasons (2002-10) as the head girls' tennis coach at Marshall High School.

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