Complete WAC Release
DENVER - Break out the brooms - NM State has swept the Western Athletic Conference's weekly women's tennis awards.
Tuesday morning, the WAC announced NM State junior Gavi Kalaga picked up the title of WAC Women's Tennis Singles Athlete of the Week while Kalaga and Harsha Challa were named the WAC's Women's Tennis Doubles Team of the Week.
Kalaga went 1-0 in one-on-one action for NM State while Challa and Kalaga produced a similar record in tandem play as the Aggies fell to Northern Arizona (5-2) and UTEP (4-1) last week at the NM State Tennis Center.
In her team's first home matches of 2021, Kalaga pushed her squad-leading singles win total to nine matches. One of the Aggies' only two team points in their 5-2 setback to Northern Arizona came on line four where Kalaga claimed a 7-6 (1), 6-1 triumph over the Lumberjacks' Ana Neyestani.
Though the Aggies fell 4-1 to UTEP last Sunday afternoon, Kalaga was just three games away from victory in flight four when the match was called. Her battle with Kathleen Percegona went unfinished, but NM State's junior was up 6-2, 4-6, 3-1 at the time the Miners clinched the match. Kalaga's singles record now stands at 9-5 through 2021.
Teaming up with Challa in top-flight singles action, Kalaga helped NM State claim its lone doubles triumph of its two-match week. Against Northern Arizona, Challa and Kalaga out-dueled the Lumberjacks' top-flight duo of Mimi Bland and Ellie Millard by a 6-4 tally to keep NM State in contention through tandem play.
Sunday afternoon, NM State's top-line pair was just a game away from knotting things at 5-5 with UTEP's tandem of Thassane Abrahim and Veronika Lebisova at the time the Miners clinched the doubles point. Instead, Challa and Kalaga's match went unfinished with then trailing 5-4. Together, Challa and Kalaga have been responsible for producing seven of the Aggies' 12 doubles victories through the 2021 season and have won their last three showdowns.
Challa, Kalaga and the rest of the Aggies are hoping to secure a share of the 2021 Western Athletic Conference regular season title this weekend at the NM State Tennis Center. The Aggies' final two WAC matches of the year are set to occur there with NM State opening its two-match weekend Friday morning at 9:00 a.m. against Chicago State. Should the Aggies defeat the Cougars, they'll take on Grand Canyon at 9:00 a.m. Sunday morning with a shot at a share of the 2021 league crown.
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