HAMMOND – The Southeastern Louisiana women's tennis team will be back in action this week, competing in the Lady Demon Invite, hosted by Northwestern State on Friday and Saturday in Natchitoches.
 
Southeastern will be looking to build on a strong start to the fall when it competes at NSU. The Lions opened the fall with wins at the Iberostar College Cup and the North Cypress Invitational.
 
The action on Friday opens with doubles play at 8:30 a.m. In the No. 1 doubles draw, SLU senior Renee Villarreal and sophomore Dalina Dahlmans will face off with the Stephen F. Austin duo of Dhanielly Quevado and Lauren Hidalgo-Smith.
 
Two Southeastern teams will be in the No. 2 doubles draw. Junior Margaux Kaltenbacher and sophomore Dany Raygadas matches up with the Louisiana-Lafayette team of Juliette Clement and Carla Ortega. Also in the No. 2 bracket, SLU sophomores Lucia Bustamante and Ceci Mercier meet Sam Houston State's Fabienne Gettwart and Mila Milanovic.
 
The Lions and Bearkats will also meet in the No. 3 doubles draw. Sophomores Natalie Duran and Madina Vorotnikova represent SLU against SHSU's Emma Barkovic and Khee Yen Wee.
 
In singles play, three-time All-Southland Conference selection Villarreal will represent the Lions in the No. 1 bracket, opening up on Friday at 9:30 a.m. versus Lamar's Anna Spengler. At the same time, Raygadas will be facing Maria Garoz of SHSU and Dahlmans meets Hidalgo-Smith in the No. 2 bracket.
 
Mercier will face SHSU's Carrier Casey on Friday at 11 a.m. in the No. 3 draw. In the No. 4 draw, Bustamante meets Northwestern State's Ilijana Ivic at 11 a.m.
 
At 12:30 a.m., two Lions will begin play in the No. 5 singles draw. Vorotnikova faces Lamar's Teodora Stefanovic and Duran will play Laia Charles of Nicholls. Kaltenbacher will open singles play on Friday at 5 p.m. against Louisiana-Lafayette's Morgan Fremin in the No. 6 bracket.
 
Following this weekend's action, SLU will compete in the West Florida Invitational on Oct. 16-17 in Pensacola, Florida.