Kearney, Neb. – The Nebraska-Kearney women's tennis team returns home this weekend to face No. 4 Central Oklahoma and defending MIAA Champion Northeastern State.

Due to expected rain in the area, both duals have been moved from Harmon Park in Kearney to the Grand Island Tennis Center. The dual Saturday vs. UCO starts at 12:30 p.m. with Sunday's tilt vs. NSU starting at 1 p.m.

UNK (11-8, 0-1), ranked seventh in the Central Region, now has a nationally-ranked singles player in true freshman Vasilisa Polunova (Khimki, Russia). The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) recently released its latest rankings for teams, singles players and doubles teams in D2 with Polunova coming in 38th in singles. 

The first-year Loper is currently 12-6 at number singles and a 9-9 in doubles, primarily playing at number one. Polunova owns singles wins over No. 21 Yu-Ling Lee (Drury, Mo.) and No. 39 Jacqueline Engelbrecht (Washburn). Her competition this weekend will be No. 30 Adel-Byanu Abidullina (UCO) and 68th-ranked Tatjana Stoll (NSU).

As a team the Lopers have already played six squads in the current 50 with No. 17 Southwest Baptist and No. 32 Northwest Missouri State waiting in the wings. Owning a win over No. 50 Rockhurst, UNK is part of a Central Region with seven clubs in the Top 32.

UCO (6-2, 1-0) has lost to only D1 competition while beating two teams in the D2 Top 22. The 'Chos have beaten UNK in each of the last two NCAA Central Regionals, thus ending the Lopers season each time.   

The RiverHawks (2-6, 0-1), who reached the Elite Eight last year, have gotten off to a slow start as they've already faced five teams in the current D2 Top 50. UNK has dropped all 10 duals to NSU since the two became MIAA members prior to the 2012-13 season.

The Lopers return to the road next weekend, heading to SBU and Lindenwood.