Women's Tennis | 4/19/2017 1:22:00 PM

SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State women's tennis team opens the 2017 Sun Belt Conference Women's Tennis Championship at the City Park Tennis Center in New Orleans on Thursday, April 20.
 
Texas State enters the SBC Championship as the eighth-seeded team and plays the first match in the championship when they meet the ninth-seeded Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns in a first-round match beginning at 8 a.m. on Thursday.  The Bobcats have a 7-10 record while Louisiana has an 8-10 mark this season. The winner of the Texas State-Louisiana match plays against top-seeded ULM on Friday morning at 8 a.m.
 
In other first round matches, No. 6-seeded UTA plays against No. 11-seeded Arkansas State and No. 7-seeded Georgia Southern faces No. 10-seeded Appalachian State at 11:30 a.m.
 
The quarterfinal matches include No. 4-seeded Troy facing the No. 5 seed, Coastal Carolina, at 8 a.m. on Friday. No. 3-seeded Georgia State faces the winner of the UTA-Arkansas State match and the winner of the Georgia Southern-Appalachian State match faces No. 2-seeded and defending champion, South Alabama. Both of those matches begin at 11:30 a.m.
 
The semifinals of the tournament will be at 10 a.m. on Saturday and the championship match is at 10 a.m. on Sunday.
 
For more information on the 2017 Sun Belt Conference Tennis Championships, visit the Championship Central page on SunBeltSports.org.  Live stats for all tournament matches will be available via Stat Broadcast. In addition, RadioTennis.com will be covering the tournament and ESPN3 will broadcast the semifinal and championship matches as well. Admission is free for the tournament at the City Park Tennis Center.
 
Two Straight Wins
The Bobcats enter the tournament looking to win their second straight match after closing the regular season with a 6-1 victory over UTRGV. Texas State also looks to improve its record to 3-2 against Sun Belt Conference teams this season after winning a 4-1 match against Louisiana on March 25 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and beating Arkansas State 4-3 on April 18 in Arlington, Texas. The two losses came against ULM and UTA with Texas State dropping both matches by a score of 4-0.           
 
Texas State In SBC First-Round Matches
The Bobcats enter the Sun Belt Championship looking to win its third straight first-round match when they face the Ragin' Cajuns after beating Arkansas State, 4-1, in 2016 and Louisiana, 4-2, in 2015. 
 
Texas State vs. Louisiana Earlier This Season
Texas State's 4-1 victory against Louisiana came when the Bobcats secured four of the five decisions in singles matches. Pippa Carr, Ana Perez, Julia Navajo-Melendez and Joy Chia Ming Ming claimed the victories. The doubles matches were not played because Texas State had clinched the victory with its four wins in singles matches.