Aggies Prep for Three-Match Swing in Arizona

Friday 02/12/2021 | By: NM State Athletics Media Relations

NM State set to face Arizona State and Arizona

THE FIRST SERVE
• The NM State men's tennis team heads out on a challenging road trip to Pac-12 country where it will tangle with Arizona State and 24th-ranked Arizona over the span of two days. The Aggies' weekend starts in Tempe, Ariz., Saturday afternoon when they tangle with Arizona State at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, NM State travels to Tucson, Ariz., where they will face nationally-ranked Arizona twice - once at 9:00 a.m. and against 1:00 p.m. from the Lanelle Robson Tennis Center.
• Saturday's matchup is the first between the two teams since 2006. That year, Arizona State emerged with a 7-0 win over the Aggies. The Sun Devils lead the all-time series 28-3 (.903) dating back to 1962.
• The Aggies' Sunday showdowns at Arizona represent the first matchups between the two clubs since the 2019 season. On Feb. 9 of that year, Arizona shut out the Aggies 7-0 in Tucson.
• Junior Louis Menard is riding a five-match winning streak in dual match singles action. Named the WAC Men's Tennis Singles Athlete of the Week on Monday, Feb. 2, Menard has won both of his singles matches this season.
• In doubles action, Menard and freshman Jordy Visser have been responsible for picking up two of the Aggies' three doubles victories in 2021.
• Freshmen Gijs Akkermans and Petr Stavrovskij each secured their first collegiate singles wins during the Aggies' opening weekend of 2021.

SCOUTING ARIZONA STATE | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• Outside of a narrow 4-3 setback to Big 12 adversary Texas on the final day of January, Arizona State hasn't had a lot of losses to speak of through the early stages of 2021. The Sun Devils head into Saturday afternoon's matchup with the Aggies on a three-game winning streak which includes a dominant 6-1 triumph against 22nd-ranked Pepperdine last Friday (Feb. 5).
• Four of the Sun Devils' 10 doubles wins in dual meet action have come courtesy of the duo of Max McKennon and Nathan Ponwith. That pair has posted a 4-1 record this spring while competing on lines one and two.
• In singles action, Arizona State has constructed an impressive 21-9 (.700) record in singles play this spring. Topping the team's wins chart in singles play is Ponwith who is a perfect 5-0 on lines one and two.
• Two other Sun Devils have four singles wins each including Andrea Bolla (4-1) and George Stoupe (4-0).
• Arizona State is receiving votes in the latest version of the Oracle/ITA Division I men's tennis rankings.
• At the start of the year, the Sun Devils' doubles pairing of Bolla and Tim Ruehl was ranked 14th in the nation. Currently that pairing owns a 1-1 record on the year.

SCOUTING ARIZONA | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• The first nationally-ranked opponent the Aggies will face, Arizona is the owner of a 5-1 record and enters Sunday's two-match day riding a three-match winning streak.
• Arizona owns an impressive 15-1 overall showing in doubles matches throughout 2021 thus far with the third-flight tandem of Gustaf Strom and Filip Malbasic showing off a flawless 5-0 mark. Up on the top line, Jett Middleton and Jonas Ziverts have gone 4-1 through the early stages of the season.
• Singles play has been a strong area for the Wildcats early on, too. As a club, they have put forth a 25-7 record there this spring with Strom's 5-0 on line three serving as the team's highest individual win total. Both Malbasic (flight four) and Carlos Hassey (flight five) have constructed singles records of 4-1 this year and in all 11 Wildcats have taken a turn in the team's singles lineup at some point throughout the spring.

COMING UP NEXT
• Corpus Christi, Texas, is the Aggies' next destination as NM State is set to be one of the teams in Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's H-E-B Tournament of Champions. The two-day tournament is schedule to take place on Friday, Feb. 19 and Saturday, Feb. 20.

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NM State set to face Arizona State and Arizona

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