The Bemidji State University tennis team returns to action with a pair of road matches March 22-23 after more than a month free from competition. The Beavers will open the weekend with a nonconference, neutral-site match versus the College of St. Benedict in Sioux Falls, S.D. at 6 p.m. Saturday. BSU will then face Augustana College at 9 a.m. Sunday in a return to Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play.

Under second-year head coach Mark Fodness, the Beavers have posted four wins in their first seven matches, and are off to their best start since opening the 2009 campaign 4-3. A victory this weekend would mark the first time BSU tennis has secured more than four wins in a season since going 7-14 in 2008.

The Beaver have been led this season by the pair of Shaylin Prout (So., Thunder Bay, Ontario) and Deanie Hatch (So., Brea, Calif.). Prout is 6-1 at No. 1 singles and Hatch has posted a 5-2 mark in the No. 2 singles slot, while the two have combined for a 4-2 mark in No. 1 doubles play.

Dating back to 2004, BSU has faced St. Bens just two times and holds a 0-2 record versus the Blazers. CSB defeated BSU 7-2 in the last meeting between the teams, March 28, 2009.

BSU is 0-6 versus Augustana since 2005. The Vikings swept the Beavers, 9-0, March 23 of last year.

In its last action Feb. 15, Bemidji State narrowly defeated NSIC for University of Minnesota Duluth, 5-4, in Bemidji, Minn.