EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Purple Aces women’s tennis team will look for its first Missouri Valley Conference victory as it travels to face Creighton and Wichita State in a pair of matches on Friday and Saturday.
 
Evansville travels to Omaha, Neb. to face Creighton at 11:30 a.m. before facing Wichita State on Saturday at 1 p.m.  The Aces are 9-5 on the season following a 6-1 loss last week to Southern Illinois to open up Valley play. 
 
Natasha James grabbed the point for UE in Carbondale on the strength of her tenth singles win of the season.  Aleks Dzakula leads UE with 11 singles wins.  
 
Creighton is 9-5 overall and 0-1 in the MVC after being swept by the Shockers on February 26.  The No. 3 doubles team of Amanda Noonan and Elizabeth Vermillion are an impressive 8-1 while a pair of singles players have also been strong.  Taylor Koehrson is 10-4 in singles while Mary McMullan is 12-2.
 
Wichita State enters the weekend ranked in the top 75 of the ITA Team Rankings, coming in at 68^th.  The Shockers are 11-5 and 1-0 in league play with the sweep of the Bluejays.  They are also a perfect 6-0 at home and have wont heir last five overall.
 
WSU’s No. 1 singles player, Lutfiana Budiharto, is 13-2 in that slot while defeating both ranked opponents she has faced. 
 
Next weekend, the Aces will close out the home portion of their schedule with matches against Northern Iowa and Drake.  The Panthers come to town for a 1 p.m. match on Saturday, April 14 before UE faces the Bulldogs a day later at 10 a.m.  Both matches are schedule to take place at Harrison High School.