After winning their first Ohio Valley Conference match on Tuesday, the women’s tennis team will be seeking its first winning streak of the season when it travels to Murray State and begins a stretch of three matches in three days.

They begin against Murray State today. Murray State is hosting Jacksonville State, Eastern and Samford this weekend.

The Panthers finally won their first match against Austin Peay at Darling Courts when they pulled off a 4-3 win.

Senior captain Jill Wirtz won both of her singles and doubles matches against Austin Peay on Tuesday.

“I feel this is the best I’ve been playing in all four years here,” Wirtz said.

Wirtz said that the next match should be tough, but the team is up for the challenge.

The Panthers must show more consistency if they want to qualify for the OVC tournament, head coach John Blackburn said.

“We were definitely on a high (against Austin Peay),” he said.

Even though the Panthers have lost six of their last eight doubles points, Blackburn still thinks it is one of the team’s strengths.

Wirtz has won three of her last four matches including a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 win against Austin Peay.

Blackburn said she’s been the leader of the team along with junior Madina Mambetova.

Mambetova is looking forward to getting back out there.

“I’m excited about this weekend,” she said.

Madina said teamwork is what will allow them to win more and start to pick up the slack.

Another consistent player is Sandra Sasidharan, who won with ease Tuesday 6-0, 6-0.

The Panthers (1-4) have struggled in conference play but want to build on Tuesday’s victory.

“As a team, we’re getting better,” Sasidharan said.

Sasidharan said that every player on the team brings something different to the table, that each player has her own strength.

One of the goals for the team at the beginning of the season was to be one of the six teams to qualify for the Conference tournament.

Coach Blackburn hopes that they play the way they did on Tuesday.

“We need to start playing at a high level,” he said.

Murray State is 4-1 in the conference. After the Panthers open the weekend against the Racers, they play Jacksonville State on Saturday and finish the weekend off with Samford.