Complete WAC Release
DENVER - There was nothing but love for NM State men's tennis from the Western Athletic Conference this week.
Tuesday morning, the WAC announced an NM State clean sweep of its Men's Tennis Athlete of the Week awards. Junior Louis Menard earned the title of WAC Singles Athlete of the Week for the second time this season while freshman Jordy Visser and senior Nicolas Buitrago were cited as the league's Doubles Athlete of the Week.
Menard, who hails from Annecy, France, manufactured a trio of singles triumphs for the Aggies in their three-match swing at the H-E-B Tournament of Champions. The junior began his weekend with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 triumph over Troy's Carles Anton in top-flight singles play Saturday morning in the Aggies' narrow 4-3 loss to the Trojans.
Menard provided the Aggies with their lone team point in a 6-1 setback to UTSA Sunday morning. On the top line, he scored a 6-2, 6-2 win over Sebastian Rodriguez to push his winning stream to two matches. To cap off his three-match weekend, Menard dominated Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Ryuya Ata 6-1, 6-2 in top flight singles action. The win helped the Aggies lock up their lone win of the weekend.
In all, Menard owns an impressive 5-2 record in singles play so far this season. Those five wins top the Aggies' singles win charts and he is unbeaten in his last three one-on-one bouts.
Buitrago and Visser competed on lines one and two through the Aggies' three matches in Corpus Christi, Texas, this past weekend. The tandem put up a 2-1 showing, starting the weekend with a 6-2 victory over Troy's duo of Amer Bedwan and Manuel Bernard on line two. That win helped the Aggies clinch the doubles point against the Trojans.
Sunday, Buitrago and Visser split a pair of doubles bouts. In NM State's morning match against UTSA, they dropped a narrow 7-6 decision to Juri Reckow and Slava Gulin in second-flight action before bouncing back later in the day.
The Aggies' duo played a big part in setting the tone early against Southland Conference power Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Moving up to the top-flight doubles slot, the pair took down the Islanders' twosome of Ryuya Aya and Kyohei Yamanaka. That win helped the Aggies clinch the doubles point and NM State would go on to hand the Islanders just their second loss of the season. NM State and fifth-ranked Texas are now the only two teams in 2021 who have defeated Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in dual match action.
Buitrago, Menard, Visser and the rest of the Aggies will be back in action on Saturday, March 6, in Lubbock, Texas, when they take on Big 12 adversary Texas Tech at 3:00 p.m.
For complete coverage of NM State men's tennis throughout the 2021 season and beyond, visit NMStateSports.com - the official home of Aggie athletics - and follow the Aggies on Facebook (NM State Men's Tennis), Twitter (@NMStateMTEN) and Instagram (@NMStateMTEN).
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