LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The NM State women's tennis team is headed to Las Vegas, Nev., this weekend to open its dual season with a trio of matches at the Fertitta Tennis Complex on the campus of UNLV.
 
The Aggies are scheduled to open the dual season with UNLV, the host, on Friday, Jan. 29 before battling with Pacific on Saturday, Jan. 30. NM State will then wrap up the three-day match weekend with Weber State on Sunday, Jan. 31. All three matches will be played at 11 a.m. (MT)
 
A LOOK AT NM STATE
A year removed from winning the Western Athletic Conference Championship and earning the automatic qualifier into NCAA Tournament for just the second time in program history, NM State returns 6-of-8 players heading into this weekend's dual opener.
 
Head coach Ivan Fernandez also added a trio of freshman to the mix in Eli Arnaudova, Lindsay Harlas and Sarah Van Eeckhoudt.
 
Arnaudova comes to NM State from Haskovo, Bulgaria, while Van Eeckhoudt hails from Sint-Joost-ten-Node, Belgium. Harlas is a Las Cruces native with deep ties to NM State, especially to the tennis programs. Both her mother and brother played tennis for the Aggies, as well as her aunts Becky Lee, Chrissy Kehl and Cathey Kwiatkowski. Her mom and aunts went by their maiden name of Ross during their time at NM State.
 
SPRINGING FORWARD
The fall season wasn't what the Aggies had hoped as a team, combining to go 30-49 in singles and 8-22 in doubles. However, the spring is a new slate and NM State will start with a clean slate in the dual season.
 
The Aggies' most successful doubles pair came from Chloe Jolliff and Gabrielle Joyce, who went 3-2 together. Senior Ashvarya Shrivastav teamed up with Rimpledeep Kaur to go 2-1 in the fall as the only other pair to register multiple wins.
 
Shrivastav currently leads the team with an 8-4 mark in singles play. Her longest streak so far this season has been three, which she's matched once so far. Shrivastav also reached the round of 16 in October at the ITA Mountain Regional Championship before falling to Nuria Ormeno Ruiz of Colorado.
 
Fellow senior Mia Brandt is second on the team with a 6-7 mark in singles play. The Oslo, Norway, product won 3-of-4 matches in the Aggie Invitational to open the season, falling in the quarterfinal round before winning her next two.
 
Junior Gabrielle Joyce and Senior Erika Castillo Lopez both sport a 5-6 record in singles play after the fall season while Jolliff checks in with two. Freshman Eli Arnaudova and junior Marie-Pier Thiffault rounds out the team with one win each.
 
REBEL RUNDOWN
UNLV, the host, looks to bounce back from last season's 7-17 overall record and 1-4 mark in Mountain West play.
 
The Rebels return junior Paola Artiga, who went 25-7 overall and 18-4 in singles play last season. UNLV also returns Mercedes Lopez Velez and Iren Kotseva to the lineup. Lopez Velez went 15-18 while Kotseva went 12-11 in singles action. The only double-digit winner UNLV lost was Alexis Garrett, who went 14-11 in singles.
 
The last time NM State and UNLV squared off was almost a year to the date as the Aggies came out on top 4-0. Then-senior Susana Alcaraz clinched the match for NM State with a 6-3, 6-1 win over the Rebels' Anett Ferenczi-Bako at the No. 2 slot.
 
The tandem of Garrett and Kotseva garnered the most wins in doubles action last season at 8-6, all of which came at the No. 3 doubles position for UNLV. Artiga and Santa Shumilina had the second-most wins in doubles action for the Rebels, checking in at 7-8 on the year. The only other pair to have more than three doubles victories came from Artiga and Lopez Velez (6-7)
 
SCOUTING THE TIGERS
Heading into Saturday's match-up with NM State, Pacific is 0-1 on the year after its dual season opening loss to former Big West foe UC Davis, 4-3. Last year's squad went 8-13 and 2-7 in West Coast Conference Play.
 
NM State lost last year's showdown with the Tigers in Las Vegas, dropping a 4-3 decision in its first of three games that weekend. The match last year was decided in favor or UOP when then-senior Denise Van Der Ben had to bow out due to injury.
 
UOP's Cristina Saenz de Buruaga Ruiz and Yuki Asami paired up to claim the gold flight consolations final in doubles play at the Cal Nike Invitational – beating out Nevada's pair – 8-7. Saenz de Buruaga Ruiz then teamed up with Viktoriya Dzyua to win the Saint Mary's Invitational doubles flight B with an 8-3 win over Sacramento State's duo.
 
WRAPPING UP WITH THE WILDCATS
Like UOP, Weber State will have had matches under its belt when the Wildcats square off with the Aggies.
 
Weber State dropped its opening dual match to Boise State, 5-2, last Saturday on the road. They are set to play Pacific and UNLV before facing NM State.
 
The Wildcats return 1-of-2 players who recorded double-digit wins last year in senior Agata Bachanek, who played at the No. 1 position and went 15-5 in dual play. Weber State lost Romy Dodd-Stephens, a freshman last season, due to transfer. Dodd-Stephens will be missed since she was the only other player to record double-digit wins for Weber State, checking in with a 15-4 mark playing predominantly in the No. 3 slot.
 
As a team, the Wildcats were four matches over .500 with a 12-8 overall record and 7-4 mark in the Big Sky Conference.
 
Dominique Beauvais and Dodd-Stephens went 11-9 in doubles play last season on court No. 2 to lead Weber State while Bachanek and Kristi Elmer came in right behind them with a 10-9 mark at the No. 1 position. Only two other tandems for the Wildcats registered more than one doubles victory.