LAS CRUCES – The New Mexico State men's tennis team will host its first dual match of the season at home on Friday, Feb. 19, at 11 a.m. (MT). The match is free for fans to attend at the NMSU Tennis Center.
 
MUSTANGS RIDE IN TO CRUCES
Western New Mexico will head to Las Cruces with a 2-1 record in dual play. The Mustangs opened their season with a sweep of Mesa Community College at home. WNMU dropped its second match of the day against Grand Canyon, 7-0 before picking up a 6-3 win over Arizona Christian the next day.
 
Western New Mexico returns 5-of-8 players from last year's squad that went 13-10 and 5-0 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play. The Mustangs only lost one double-digit winner in Alvaro Nunez (12-11) to graduation. Juan Pablo Fuentes (9-10) and Omar Lopez (6-5) were the other two players WNMU lost to graduation.
 
Of the five returners, Vladimir Gnilozubov went 14-7 last season in singles, playing predominantly at the No. 5 slot while Pablo Santibanez was 10-8 on the year – mostly at the No. 6 slot. Tristian Da Lio and Jean Laurent Pageault both went 9-10 on the season with Da Lio playing at No. 3 singles and Pageault playing at No. 2 singles.
 
Pageault and Santibanez was the best doubles tandem for Western New Mexico, recording a 9-0 record at No. 3 doubles. Nunez and Fuentes came in second with an 8-1 mark, playing on court No. 2 for the Mustangs. Da Lio and Gnilozubov teamed up as WNMU's No. 1 doubles team and went 7-6 overall.
 
LAST TIME OUT
NM State dropped a pair of matches last week in the Midwest to Nebraska (6-1) and No. 67 Wichita State (7-0). Freshman Stijn de Haan registered NM State's lone win in singles play on the weekend when he downed the Huskers' Tomi Antoljak 6-4, 7-6 on court No. 4. De Haan also teamed up with fellow freshman Mauri Benitez to win their doubles match 6-3 against Nebraska's pair on court No. 3.
 
ONE IN THE BOOKS
New Mexico State went winless in its first four matches before recording its first win of the season against Weber State at the Fertitta Tennis Complex in Las Vegas, Nev., last week. The win came after NM State lost the doubles point and went down 3-0 in singles play. One-by-one the Aggies rallied behind one another to reel off four-straight and claim the come from behind victory.
 
After last weekend, NM State now has five players with double-digit wins in singles play. Freshman Enrique Asmar tops the list with a 13-8 mark while Christofer Goncalves checks in at 12-7. Liam Goldberg (10-5), Strahinja Trecakov (10-10) and Stijn de Haan (11-9) rounds out the list of double-digit winners in singles for the Aggies.