THIS WEEK
The Southwest Minnesota State women's tennis team will begin Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference action this weekend with matches versus two top teams -- Winona State (2-0, 2-0 NSIC) on Saturday, and Augustana (4-0, 3-0 NSIC) on Sunday. The match versus Winona State will be played at Lifetime Fitness Oakdale complex in St. Louis Park, Minn., starting at 5:30 p.m. The match versus Augustana will be played at the Sioux Empire Fitness Center in Sioux Falls, S.D., with start time slated for 5 p.m.

LAST WEEK
The Southwest Minnesota State tennis team opened up the 2013 season with a 7-2 loss to Macelester College last Saturday. Shelby Monahan won by default over Katelyn Glenna in singles competition, the only singles win for SMSU (0-1). Macalester took five of six singles matches to secure the overall match before the doubles matches. SMSU's pair of Katie Kienitz and Allison Niedert teamed up to beat the Macalester pair of Katelyn Glenna and Alicia Roopchand, 8-5. SMSU's duos of Shelby Monahan/Crystal Overbaugh and Samantha Ritter/Aileen Roman dropped their matches, 8-5, 8-4, respectively.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT - WINONA STATE
Winona State (2-0, 2-0 NSIC) is coming off a second place Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference finish in 2012 as the Warriors went 16-3 overall, 9-1 in the NSIC. The Warriors return 2012's NSIC Player of the Year Erin Kappers for her senior season. Kappers, who has already garnered NSIC Player of the Week honors earlier this season, is coming off a 14-1 singles season as a junior and is 2-0 thus far as a senior. Heather Pierce returns for her second season as head coach of the Warriors - she has a career record of 18-3.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT - AUGUSTANA
The Vikings (4-0, 3-0 NSIC) stretched their streak of regular season NSIC wins to 35 with their two wins over U-Mary and Minnesota State last week.  The Vikings have won the past three NSIC titles and have their eyes on another flawless season and title to add to their trophy case.  In conference play, the Vikings have posted a pair of wins over U-Mary -- 9-0 and 8-1.  The Vikings have won all 18 singles matches in the three-team matches and done so in straight set fashion each time. The Vikings feature Hannah Gebauer, a senior Sioux Falls native, who is coming off NSIC Player of the Week honors for her performance this past week. The Vikings are No. 7 in the newly aligned region rankings, which features the Mid-American Intercollegiate Athletics Association, Great American Conference and the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. Katie Jesperson also appears in the singles rankings, checking in at No. 19. The pair of Jessa Richards and Hannah Gebauer is ranked eighth in the doubles list. Marc Kurtz is in his fifth season as head coach for Augustana, recording a 73-22 overall record, including 39-3 in the NSIC.