Carbondale, IL (U-WIRE) -- Brett Bridel looked more like a member of the SIU women's tennis team rather than its coach.

He participated with his team in drills at practice Monday, and in fact, never took a seat and played a doubles match with three of his players before calling it a day.

Temperatures breezed into the lower 60s and everyone seemed to be in good spirits for numerous reasons, not the least of which being an opportunity to play at home.

Today, for the first time in five months, the Salukis will ditch the luggage and road trips and host Memphis, the first of three consecutive home matches.

"We don't like those long van rides," Bridel said, "So it's good to be at home for a stretch and get some matches here at home in front of a friendly crowd.

"The van rides are not fun. You just have to put up with that. Those are just part of the journey, but those aren't fun."

Memphis knows. Today's match is its fifth-straight away from home. The Lady Tigers (3-9, 1-3 Conference USA) have lost three of their last four, including back-to-back losses at McNeese State and Louisiana-Lafayette.

The Lady Tigers, though, have a couple of players who have been on a roll in senior Marlene Dirnstorfer and sophomore Christina Wieser.

Dirnstorfer is just 6-6 in singles play, but has won three matches in a row and five of her last six at the No. 1 spot. Wieser has won three of her last four, improving her singles record to 5-7.

Even with Dirnstorfer and Wieser clicking right now, Memphis looks to be an opponent SIU should have little trouble with.

Bridel says otherwise.

"They're a good team," he said. "We're going to have to be playing our best, intensity-wise, mentally and emotionally to be able to handle them."

If the performance against Evansville in the conference opener is any indication, they are headed in that direction.

SIU (3-7, 1-0) outplayed the Purple Aces, sweeping all three of the doubles matches and taking all but one of the singles matches.

"That's always a good confidence builder to win some matches," Bridel said. "But we're not focused on the wins and the losses. We're actually just trying to get better each day, each match.

"We know that the wins will come. They'll just be the results of hard work. We're just going to keep working to get better."

Tana Trapani, who returned from a nagging hip injury to notch a 6-1, 6-0 victory against Evansville's Erica Bass, said she expects to play today.

Trapani also said she didn't know much about Memphis' team this season, but expects a tough match based on past experience with the Lady Tigers.

"I think we're ready to go," said the Murphysboro native. "Evansville was a good win last weekend. We're working hard so we'll just see what we can do."

With forecasts calling for temperatures in the lower 70s with a 10 percent chance of rain, Bridel is hoping the nice weather translates into support from the fans.

Trapani, who said she doesn't mind the traveling on road trips, is just happy to be home.

"I'm really excited," she said. "But it doesn't matter, we can play in bad weather. We don't care. It's nice to be at home."

(C) 2004 Daily Egyptian via U-WIRE