KANSAS CITY – The NM State men's tennis team outslugged UMKC on Friday at the Plaza Tennis Center and picked up the 4-3 win on a very windy afternoon.
 
The Aggies (8-9, 3-1 WAC) dropped the doubles point for the second-straight match, but were able to dig deep and pull out the win in singles action this time around.
 
The freshmen duo of Mauri Benitez and Enrique Asmar defeated their foes on court No. 3 first, 6-2, before UMKC (11-7, 2-1 WAC) picked up 6-4 and 6-3 wins at doubles No. 1 and No. 2, respectively.
 
Benitez quickly tied things up in singles action when he ousted Vinh Phan 6-2, 6-2 at No. 5 singles. Stijn de Haan needed a tiebreaker, but was able to give the Aggies a 2-1 lead when he defeated Mike Psarros 6-4, 7-6 (9-7) at the No. 4 position.
 
However, UMKC halted the NM State rally with wins on court No. 3 and No. 1 to retake the lead, 3-2.
 
With the match on the line and trailing 5-2 in the second set after dropping his first set 6-0, Christofer Goncalves willed his way back into the match with a 7-6 (7-1) win in the second set. That second set win fueled the sophomore to his 19th singles win of the year, after taking the third set 6-3 over UMKC's Andrey Smirnov. It was also Goncalves' sixth-straight win in singles play.
 
As soon as Goncalves wrapped up his match to tie things up, 3-3, Asmar dropped a close second set to Amaury Navette 7-6 to force a third. Despite momentum in favor of Navette, Asmar made sure Goncalves' hard-fought win at No. 2 singles wasn't in vain and plowed through Navette 6-1 in the third set to give NM State the 4-3 win.
 
Friday's win for Asmar in singles play kept him tied with Goncalves for the team-lead at 19 wins.
 
Asmar, Benitez Goncalves and de Haan are all one win away from reaching 10 wins in dual play with two matches remaining in the regular-season.
 
New Mexico State will wrap up Western Athletic Conference play on Saturday when it squares off against Chicago State at Noon (MT).