LAS CRUCES – The NM State men's tennis team looks to repeat as Western Athletic Conference Champions by the end of the weekend as the three-day tournament begins this Friday, May 29, at the Brownsville Tennis Center hosted by UT Rio Grande Valley.
 
The Aggies enter this year's conference championships with a 10-9 overall record and 4-1 mark in WAC play, earning them a share of the WAC title with UMKC and Grand Canyon. However, the 'Lopes are ineligible for postseason play.
 
Sophomore Christofer Goncalves left right where he left off during last year's WAC Freshman of the Year campaign, leading the Aggies with a 21-9 mark, including an 11-7 record in dual play. Freshman Enrique Asmar is close behind him with a 20-11 record and 10-7 in dual action. Fellow freshman Stijn de Haan is one win behind Asmar, sporting a 19-12 mark and 11-7 record in singles play during the dual season.
 
Liam Goldberg (18-8), Strahinja Trecakov (16-16) and Mauri Benitez (14-10) round out the double-digit singles match winners for NM State. Of the six regular starts in singles action, four have double-digit wins in dual play.
 
Goncalves is riding an eight-match winning-streak and has won eight of his last 10 matches. Benitez and de Haan are both riding a three-match win-streak while Asmar and Goldberg have won their last two matches.
 
Due to the tiebreaker, NM State is the No. 2-seed at the conference championships while UMKC earned the top seed. The Aggies are slated to first take on the No. 3-seed and host, UTRGV, at noon on Saturday, April 30. Should the Aggies be victorious, they'll face the winner other semifinals match between UTRGV and the winner between Seattle U and Chicago State.
 
The men's WAC Championship match is slated to take place on Sunday, May 1, at noon with the winner earning an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
 
Last year at the championships, the Aggies took down Seattle U 4-0 before winning a thrilling 4-3 battle against UTRGV – formerly known as UT-Pan American.