BATON ROUGE – The Northwestern State women's tennis team kicks off its dual-match season this Saturday as they take on LSU.
 
Saturday's competition will also be LSU's first dual-match of the 2013 campaign and is set to take place at the 'Dub' Robinson Stadium at 1 o'clock.
 
The Lady Demons return six players from last season's 14-5 team, which finished fourth in the Southland Conference, including senior captain Andrea Nedorostova, 2012 All-SLC first team selection Polina Konop and reigning SLC Freshman of the Year Tatiana Larina.
 
Nedorostova finished 13-5 at the No. 2-4 positions in singles play last season and was 8-3 in Southland play at the No. 4 spot.
 
Larina wrapped up the 2012 season 15-3 at the No. 2-3 positions in singles competition and went 10-1 against SLC foes.
 
Larina and Nedorostova paired up for doubles play, going 15-3 overall and 9-2 in Southland competition at the No. 2 spot.
 
The duo went 2-1 at the Florida Gulf Coast Eagle Invite last weekend, taking down pairs from FGCU and Northern Florida before falling to another FGCU team in the flight two championship match.
 
Konop, a junior, also had a successful 2012 season, finishing 15-3 in singles at the No. 3 position and 16-2 in doubles at the No. 1 spot with former partner Olga Bazhanova.
 
Also competing for the Lady Demons are sophomores Linda Gamo, Olga Leyshyna and Amy Williams and freshmen Vanja Bogetic, Natalya Krutova and Daniela Simonova.
 
NSU opens its home season next Friday as they host Abilene Christian at the Jack Fisher Tennis Complex. The Lady Demons do not begin Southland Conference competition until March 9 against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.