The Great American Conference recently announced its women's tennis preseason coaches with fifth-year head coach Greg Owen's Lady Muleriders positioned fourth amidst a tight six-team standing.
Southern Arkansas received 15 total points and one of six first-place votes. Southeastern Oklahoma State was selected to the top spot with 22 total points and half of the first-place votes.
Southern Arkansas returns the service of two All-GAC performers from a season ago. First team selection Lena Milosevic and second team honoree Sarah Roy are back for Owen who carries a roster of ten into the spring season.
The Lady Muleriders will look to bounce back from a 5-17 season last spring which included a 2-3 mark in the GAC play. This past fall, SAU was solid at a trio of individual tournaments, including the Great American Conference championships. Milosevic claimed an individual flight title for the third time in her career and freshman Tamiya Lintz also won an individual flight championship. Roy nearly won the Flight 1 final after claiming two wins and then narrowly losing in a three-set match.
Inna Serpukhova, Kalley Smith, Greta Wallin and Honoka Yoshimura return for the spring and are joined by first-year Muleriders Lintz, Annika Berrendorf and Amber Young.
Revived in the fall of 2017 for competition in 2018-19, the SAU women's tennis program has compiled a 41-36 record in four seasons under Owen. Within those 77 matches is a 19-6 showing at home on the Live Oak Tennis Courts, four wins over top 30 teams, the 2019 GAC regular season and tournament championships, a 2019 NCAA Central Region berth and a national top 25 ranking.
The Lady Muleriders open the 2023 season on February 4 against Delta State in Arkadelphia. SAU plays host to West Alabama (10 a.m.) and Mississippi College (2 p.m.) on Sunday, February 19 in its 2023 home opener. GAC action begins with a little over a month later as SAU travels to Arkansas Tech on March 14 to open league play. The Lady Muleriders will close out its conference slate with four matches in five days spanning from April 6-11 with three of the four at the Live Oak Tennis Courts.
