CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The New Mexico State men's tennis team split its first day at the H-E-B Tournament of Champions Friday evening when it dropped the second of two matches against UTSA 4-2 at the Thomas J. Henry Tennis Center.
 
Due to tournament running long, Friday evening's match between the Aggies and Roadrunners went straight to singles action and skipped out on doubles play.
 
UTSA (7-5) jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Sergi Espias was bested by his opponent 6-1, 6-2 at the No. 3 singles slot. Freshman Louis Menard tied it up for the Aggies with a dominant 6-1, 6-2 victory of his own against Patrick Poestinger.
 
NM State (7-4) went down 2-1 after Luis Flores was defeated by Juri Reckow 6-4, 6-2 on court No. 2. The score was tied once again, this time 2-2, thanks to Mauri Benitez's 6-4, 6-4 victory on court No. 5.
 
With the match knotted up at 2-2, Christofer Goncalves was able to force a third set after dropping a tight first set. However, the senior was edged by his foe at the top singles position 7-6, 4-6, 6-2. Enrique Asmar was embattled with a tight back-and-forth fight against Javier Gonzalez on court No. 4. Despite winning the first set 6-4, Asmar was not able to fend off UTSA's Gonzalez and lost 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
 
The Aggies will battle host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 8:30 a.m. (MT) on Saturday, March 3, in the third-place match to wrap up the H-E-B Tournament of Champions. The Islanders enter Saturday's match with an impressive 13-2 overall record, including a 5-1 mark at home.