STEPHENVILLE, Texas – For the first time since Tarleton clinched the Western Athletic Conference regular season title at home nearly 10 months ago, the Texans will play dual match tennis in Stephenville.
 
The Texans (0-2, 0-0 WAC) will have their home-opening matches on Saturday against Cowley College at 10 a.m., followed by a 3 p.m. tilt against Weatherford College.
 
Tarleton opened their spring season two weeks ago at No. 4 Oklahoma, followed by a neutral site match in Norman against Missouri. Although the Texans lost both, there were several positive moments to build off of.
 
Plus, since both matches were "clinch" – meaning once the result of the match was in hand, all remaining individual matches go unfinished – several individual records remained untarnished, such as Celia Vaudiau, who is on a 20-match winning streak.
 
Predicting Saturday's lineup, it appears Tarleton has their first two singles flights locked up, with Martha Makantasi at No. 1 and Emma Persson at No. 2. Makantasi held her own against the 91st ranked player in the nation, Carmen Corley, in the No. 1 singles match against last year's national runners-up Oklahoma. That match went unfinished. Persson was also close against the No. 66 player in the nation, Missouri's Laura Masic, before that match went unfinished as well.
 
Vaudiau, Ximena Morales and Clara Sobius each played two singles matches on the first day of the spring season, with Elsa Boisson playing at No. 3 against Oklahoma and Laure Razet playing at No. 5 against Missouri.
 
In doubles play, Tarleton changed each pairing between the two matches. However, Makantasi played twice in the first flight, Persson played twice in the second flight and Sobius played twice in the third flight.
 
Although Tarleton takes on non-Division I opponents Saturday, the day will be no walk in the park. Cowley College went 10-8 last year before finishing fifth in the NJCAA Division I National Championships. Weatherford College, meanwhile, went 7-7 on the year before placing eighth in the same national tournament.
 
No ticket is required to attend Saturday's doubleheader as they are free events. Live scoring for the Cowley College match can be found here, and live scoring for the Weatherford College match can be found here.