RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech women's tennis team is set to begin Great American Conference action this week and will do so at home on consecutive days against Southern Arkansas and Ouachita.
 
First up, the Golden Suns will play Southern Arkansas on Tuesday, March 14 starting at 2 p.m. A day later, the Suns will take on Ouachita at home starting at 2 p.m. as well. Originally, there was going to be a day in-between the SAU and Ouachita match, but rain in the forecast on Thursday in Russellville prompted the move to Wednesday.
 
SAU is scheduled to play a non-conference match at home against Emporia State on Monday afternoon. At the time of this preview, SAU's match with Emporia State has not started, but the Muleriders record heading into the match is 3-7 overall.
 
The Muleriders have played a difficult schedule this fall with a pair of matches against Division I Louisiana Tech and four matches against ranked Division II opponents. SAU dropped both matches with Louisiana Tech and are 1-3 in the matches against ranked opponents. The Muleriders' lone win against a ranked opponent did come here recently as they edged out No. 33 Northeastern State, 4-3, this past Saturday.
 
This will also be the first meeting between Tech and SAU this year. Last season, the two played just once with Tech winning 6-1 in Magnolia.
 
Ouachita enters the match with Tech 2-8 overall and will be playing their first GAC match of the year. The Tigers opened up the year 2-0 with shutout wins over Division III Hendrix and Ozarks, but have dropped each of their last eight matches.
 
During that stretch, the Tigers have been shutout in all but one match as they took a point against Central Arkansas.
 
This will be the second meeting between Tech and Ouachita this year with the two playing a non-conference match in Arkadelphia back on February 11. Tech won the match 7-0.