STEPHENVILLE, Texas – Tarleton Tennis did what they needed to on the road in February, and they'll start their month of March at home starting Friday.
 
The Texans open March with six straight home matches, beginning Friday with a doubleheader against Tyler Junior College and Weatherford College. The first match will begin at 1 p.m. CT in Stephenville, with the second match to follow, scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. CT.
 
Tarleton played all five of their February matches on the road, going 4-1, with wins over Oral Roberts, UTSA, Texas State and Sacramento State. They fell just one time in the narrowest of margins, 4-3 at Pacific.
 
The Texans are 5-3 on the season so far in non-conference play.
 
Freshman Emma Persson has starred at the No. 2 spot in singles, beginning her collegiate career 6-1. At the time of her sixth win, she had the tied-most wins at the Nos 1-2 position in the entire Western Athletic Conference.
 
Three other Texans are currently .500 or better in singles, with Elsa Boisson at 4-3, Ximena Morales at 4-3 and Clara Sobius at 4-4. Martha Makantasi is 3-4, all at the No. 1 position, and Celia Vaudiau is 2-4 after recently playing at the No. 3 spot.
 
In doubles, Makantasi and Boisson have been the primary No. 1 duo, and have begun 4-2 this season together.
 
Tarleton has won five of their past six matches.
 
Although Tyler JC is at the NJCAA level, they are no pushovers, an established program that hasn't lost much of late. Over the past three seasons, the Apaches are 28-2, including two wins over the Texans, both times in Stephenville. The Apaches knocked off Tarleton in 2020-21 5-2, and 6-1 in 2019-20. Both teams were supposed to play in Tyler last year, but the match was canceled due to weather.
 
As for Weatherford College, the Coyotes are managing through a season with a smaller roster than usual. As of this writing, Weatherford College has four players. This match was previously scheduled to be played on Jan. 28, but it was postponed by the Coyotes late.
 
All remaining Texan matches are scheduled to be livestreamed and can be viewed at www.tarletonsports.com/texantennis. Live scoring for the Tyler JC match can be found here, while live scoring for the Weatherford College match can be found here.