FAYETTEVILLE - When No. 17 Arkansas meets No. 2 Georgia in today's tennis match at the NCAA Championships in Tulsa, the Lady Razorbacks will be led by the nation's top-ranked singles player, junior Aurelija Miseviciute.

At the same time in Fayetteville, the nation's top-ranked amateur golfer will be hitting practice shots in preparation for her own sport's NCAA Championships, which will be held next week in Albuquerque, N. M. She is Stacy Lewis, a senior at Arkansas.

As unlikely as it might seem for a school that isn't known as a hotbed for women's tennis or as a popular destination among elite women's golfers, Arkansas has put itself on the map in both sports, thanks to a pair of players born half a world apart.

"It's probably not the first thing you would think of when you think about Arkansas," said Lewis, a twotime SEC champion and the defending national champion from The Woodlands, Texas.

"It's pretty cool to think about, huh ?" added Miseviciute, a native of Lithuania who shot to a No. 1 ranking after winning the equivalent of an indoors national championship in December.

Both players have overcome trying times to make the move to the top of their respective sports, and both openly concede a strong desire to stay there.

Otherwise, their stories are vastly different.

Miseviciute came to Arkansas after being recruited by Coach Michael Hegarty, now in his fifth season, and was in the midst of a sensational freshman campaign that included a 29-4 singles record before being suspended by the NCAA late in the spring season.

Miseviciute's suspension came after another SEC school reported her for playing as a professional years earlier, during her junior career. Arkansas claimed Miseviciute had received a minor amount of prize money - as allowed by the NCAA to help defer travel costs - but mistakenly registered as a professional rather than as an amateur because of a misunderstanding with tournament officials.

The NCAA suspended Miseviciute for one year, wiping out the end of her freshman season and the bulk of her sophomore season. When she returned to full-time play last fall, Miseviciute toppled three top 25 players in five matches to win the ITA National Indoor Championships.

Those victories came on the heels of Miseviciute winning six qualifying matches a month earlier and earned her a No. 1 ranking that she has held for the majority of the spring season.

The lofty ranking didn't satisfy Miseviciute as much as it motivated her.

"Aurelija's been bettered, I think, this spring by the fact she's been ranked No. 1 because she feels good about the responsibility of remaining high," Hegarty said. "It's helped her play better."

Or, as Miseviciute said: "I want to stay there. It's better to say you're No. 1 than No. 5."

That doesn't mean Miseviciute is consumed with the No. 1 ranking. She said she doesn't check the rankings regularly, but usually learns of her place from Arkansas' sports information contact.

The ranking hasn't affected her approach to matches, either. Miseviciute said she still battles internal butterflies before every match - regardless of the opponent's rank - and often pretends she is losing a match even when she is on the verge of ending it.

"Sometimes I trick myself and think, 'Oh, you're behind. You've got to catch up,'" Miseviciute said.

Lewis has her own set of motivational tactics, one of which has been to focus on the current college rankings instead of the amateur set that has her at No. 1. Lewis is ranked second behind Duke's Amanda Blumenherst in the college rankings despite the fact they are 2-2 in head-to-head meetings this year.

Lewis, who has won six of 11 events this year, also won both tournaments in which she finished ahead of Blumenherst. Meanwhile, Blumenherst, the winner of four of 10 events this year, did not win either tournament in which she placed higher than Lewis.

Blumenherst, the two-time defending national player of the year, also recently was presented with the Nancy Lopez Award, given annually to the world's most outstanding female amateur. That made Blumenherst the award's first repeat winner, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by Lewis.

"I thought I had a really good chance at getting it, and it kind of made me mad," Lewis said. "It feels like no matter what I do, I'm not going to be No. 1. So that's a lot of extra motivation for me."

Lewis is no stranger to overcoming obstacles. Recruited by former coach Kelley Hester, Lewis redshirted during her first year at Arkansas after undergoing back surgery that left her too weak to swing a club. She made a dazzling debut the following season, winning the SEC championship, and has been turning heads ever since.

Lewis finished tied for fifth at the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship - the first major of the LPGA season - and was the firstround leader at the LPGA event in Rogers last summer when the tournament was canceled because of weather.

Now Lewis has her sights set on repeating as national champion, a feat that might finally push her past Blumenherst in the college rankings.

"I think at this stage she's thinking more about winning the national championship than the rankings," Arkansas Coach Shauna Estes-Taylor said. "If she does that, then the ranking will take care of itself."

The successes of Lewis and Miseviciute have brought muchcoveted exposure to their respective programs. Estes-Taylor and Hegarty said recruiting has become easier with each title won by Lewis and Miseviciute.

"That's the kind of stuff you can't buy," Hegarty said.

Lewis and Miseviciute have been stellar in the classroom as well, both earning the SEC's scholar-athlete of the year award in their respective sports. Lewis has a double major in accounting and finance, while Miseviciute has a double major in international economics and marketing.

The two even shared a class together last semester, working as part of a five-person team on a group project. The grade they earned on the project was as high as their rankings.

"We got an 'A,'" Miseviciute said with a smile. "Stacy did a good job. She's smart."

Maybe it takes one to know one when it comes to top-flight scholar-athletes. NCAA Championships

No. 17 Arkansas vs. No. 2 Georgia WHAT Round of 16 WHEN 3 p.m. Central today WHERE Case Center, Tulsa NOTEWORTHY Arkansas and Georgia split their two meetings this season.... Today's winner advances to play the winner of No. 7 UCLA-No. 10 Southern Cal on Saturday. QUOTING COACH MICHAEL HEGARTY "There's not a lot of secrets between the two teams. You learn a lot about another team when you spend five hours on the court against them twice."