THIBODAUX – The Nicholls State University men's and women's tennis teams are set to host Alcorn State for their home openers on Wednesday, Feb. 9 at the Colonel Tennis Complex at 1:30 p.m.

The match was originally scheduled for last Thursday but was postponed due to the weather.

Each squad will be looking to pick up their first win of the young season. The men (0-2) are coming off a hard-fought loss against conference foe Texas-Pan American on Sunday, falling to the Broncs 4-3. Sophomores Dmitry Kozionov, Roy Knight, and Palash Tiwari all took home victories in singles play while sophomore Matshidiso Malope and freshman Shayann Vaezzadeh gave the Colonels their first win in doubles action.

Tiwari, a native of New Delhi, India, leads the Colonels with two victories on the season. After dropping the first set on Sunday, he battled back to win the next two, 6-3 and 6-4, respectively. Tiwari, who recently earned Southland Conference Player of the Week honorable mention, was the lone Colonel to pick up a point in the opener at South Alabama.

While the men's team has only two upperclassmen, the women's team returns a wealth of experience. The 2011 squad features four seniors, a pair of juniors, and one freshman.

Leading the senior class for Nicholls are All-Louisiana honorees Florina Nosca and Natalia Zamora. Nosca earned 15 wins last season in the No. 1 singles spot while Zamora notched 17 in the No. 2 slot. Rounding out the seniors are Melissa Harrison and Sumana Kalyanasundaram, who each picked up 13 victories in doubles in 2010.

The rest of the women's team includes juniors Parija Maloo, Tatiana Denezhkina; who notched 13 doubles victories last season, and freshman Marina Ljoshevska.

First serve for both matches is set for 1:30 p.m.