MARSHALL, Minn. – The Southwest Minnesota State women's tennis team (3-9, 3-5 NSIC) will close-out the 2011 regular season with three Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference matches this weekend at the Huether Tennis Centre in Sioux Falls, S.D. The Mustangs are set to take on Northern State (4-6, 1-5 NSIC) at 10 a.m. on Saturday before playing Augustana (13-2, 6-0 NSIC) at 5 p.m. SMSU will then play its regular season match on Sunday taking on Minnesota Duluth (5-8, 4-3 NSIC) at 11:30 a.m.

Last time out: The Mustangs snapped a six-match losing streak last Sunday with a 5-4 win over Minnesota, Crookston. After defeating Bemidji State (5-4) on Feb. 19, SMSU lost six consecutive dual matches. SMSU won two out of three doubles matches and three out of six singles matches to earn the victory over the Golden Eagles.

Senior leadership: Cailey Grupe and Trisha Baldwin have identical singles records this season. Grupe has is 5-7 on the season at No. 1 singles while Baldwin is 5-7 at No. 2 doubles for the Mustangs. The duo has compiled a 7-5 record as SMSU's No. 1 doubles tandem. Both have gone 4-6 in their last 10 matches.

The series: SMSU is 12-0 all-time against Northern State … the two teams first met during the 1980 season … SMSU defeated Northern State 9-0 on March 21 last season … Augustana leads the all-time series against SMSU 12-5 … the Vikings have won the last five meetings between the two teams … Augustana defeated SMSU 7-2 in Marshall last season on April 12 … SMSU is 4-17 all-time against Minnesota Duluth … the Bulldogs defeated SMSU 8-1 in non-conference action on Feb. 25 this season in Duluth.

Ranked: Southwest Minnesota State was ranked 10th in the latest edition of the Central Region Rankings, released on Tuesday by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. The Mustangs were one of five NSIC teams to be ranked in the Central Region poll. Augustana earned the top spot with Upper Iowa being ranked second. Winona State was ranked fifth, while Minnesota State, Mankato was 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.

The coach: Chralie 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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