First serve against the Tigers is Friday at 5 p.m. at the Mizzou Tennis Complex in Columbia. The Aggies face the 46th-ranked Razorbacks, Sunday at 12 p.m. at the Billingsley Tennis Center in Fayetteville, Ark.
"This part of our season is analogous to the proverbial 'dog days of summer,'” A&M head coach Howard Joffe said. “The tough competition coupled with our second week in a row of travel makes this a demanding weekend. Both Missouri and Arkansas are good teams who are motivated to play a high-ranked team at home. Our ladies will need to stick together and play hard if we wish to be successful.”
The Aggies (10-4, 7-2 SEC) have won seven of their last eight matches and climbed four spots to No. 11 in this week's national rankings. They are in sole possession of fourth place in the SEC standings, only one game behind fifth-ranked Georgia and No. 8 Vanderbilt, who are tied for second. Most recently, A&M defeated both Mississippi State and No. 21 Ole Miss on the road last weekend.
Missouri is 8-13 overall and 0-9 in SEC play. The Tigers are coming off a 6-0 loss to Georgia on Sunday in Columbia.
Arkansas, 2-10 against nationally ranked opponents this season, is 13-11 overall and tied with Tennessee for 11th in the SEC standings with a 2-7 conference ledger entering a match against LSU on Friday. Most recently, the Razorbacks fell to Tennessee, 4-2, in Fayetteville.
Individually, A&M's Rutuja Bhosale enters the weekend riding a career-best and team-leading eight-match win streak in singles. Last weekend the sophomore took over the team lead for overall singles victories, improving to 19-9 -- including 8-1 in conference matches only -- with straight-set victories at the No. 2 line.
Bhosale carries a No. 57 national ranking in singles, while sophomore teammate Rachel Pierson is a team-high No. 32 with an 18-10 overall record. Sophomore Saska Gavrilovska is ranked 77th, and at No. 101, junior Stefania Hristov rounds out A&M's ranked singles players.
In doubles, the duo of Ines Deheza and Hristov is No. 16, marking the highest doubles ranking of the season for an A&M pair. Pierson and her partner, lone freshman Eva Paalma, are No. 56 and riding a team-high three-match win streak. Meanwhile, Bhosale and Gavrilovska are at No. 80 this week.
Neither Missouri nor Arkansas has nationally ranked players in singles or doubles.
A&M is 21-1 in the all-time series against Missouri and has won the last 13 meetings. Last year the Aggies defeated the Tigers, 4-0, in College Station during the regular season, as well as 4-0 in Columbia at the SEC Tournament to advance to the quarterfinals.
A&M leads Arkansas, 10-6, in the all-time series, including 2-0 in SEC matches only. In the most recent meeting, A&M defeated the 39th Razorbacks, 4-0, last year at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
A&M concludes a three-match road swing at No. 7 Baylor on Wednesday, April 8, before closing out its regular-season home slate next weekend, hosting No. 8 Vanderbilt and No. 20 Kentucky, Friday and Sunday, respectively, at the Mitchell Tennis Center.
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M women's tennis. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M women's tennis team on Twitter by following @AggieWTEN or on Facebook at Facebook.com/AggieWomensTennis.