HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The New Mexico State men's tennis team had a thrilling match Sunday afternoon at the USM Tennis Complex and narrowly escaped past Southern Miss 4-3 thanks to the match-clinching win from sophomore Louis Menard.
 
NM State took the first match in doubles action with Louis Menard and Enrique Asmar beating out their counterparts 6-3 at the No. 2 slot. However, the Golden Eagles (7-6) answered with wins on courts No. 3 and No. 3, respectively, to claim the doubles point.
 
Stijn de Haan tied things up for the Aggies (7-8) heading into singles action after toppling Tom Cecchetto 6-1, 6-2 at the top position. Mauri Benitez made it a 2-1 advantage for NM State when he bested Panji Setiawan in straight sets 6-1, 6-1 on court No. 5. Asmar then gave New Mexico State match point with a 6-4, 6-2 victory on court No. 4 over Matthieu Peres.
 
Down 3-1, Southern Miss made its stand and took courts No. 2 and No. 6 to knot things up and set all eyes on court No. 3 between Menard and Chung-Han Tsai.
 
After taking the first set, Tsai battled back to take the second set before Menard cruised to a 6-2 win in the third set to clinch the match for New Mexico State.
 
The Aggies now hit the road for a pair of matches in the Big Easy. First up will be New Orleans on Monday, March 25, at 1 p.m. (MT) before closing out the trip with a 1 pm. Battle against Nicholls State on Tuesday, March 26.