WAC Tournament Central
LAS CRUCES, N.M. - With a trio of pitched singles matches still going on, the NM State women's tennis team saw its 2021 season come to an end Sunday morning at the NM State Tennis Center as the second-seeded Aggies dropped a 4-0 decision to top-seeded Grand Canyon in the championship match of the 2021 WAC Tournament.
In the play-to-clinch format, the Aggies were unable to finish up their singles matches on lines one, two and five. Those tightly-contested tilts saw NM State open up a pair of leads, but wins by the Lopes elsewhere in singles play clinched matters for the league's top seed.
DOUBLES
• Grand Canyon got the jump on the Aggies early on by winning the doubles point. Down on line three, Kayla Fielder and Miranda Bishard secured just a single game in their 6-1 setback to Joely Lomas and Taylor Anderson.
• Chloe Gavino and Bella Nguyen fared better in their tandem tilt, but dropped a 6-2 decision to the Lopes' duo of Emilia Occhipinti and Autumn Prudhomme.
• At the time of the Lopes' win on line two to lock up the doubles point, NM State's top-line pair of Harsha Challa and Gavi Kalaga found themselves involved in a 3-3 affair with Natasha Puehse and Jana Weiss which ultimately went unfinished.
SINGLES
• Fielder took a game off of Anderson on line six, but the Lopes' competitor secured a 6-1, 6-0 victory in that showdown to push GCU's lead to 2-0.
• A slow start hindered Kalaga in her line four matchup with Lomas. The Aggies' All-WAC Honorable Mention selection found herself on the wrong end of a 6-3, 6-3 decision which put the Lopes on the cusp of victory.
• Bishard jumped out to an early set two lead in her line three battle with Weiss after dropping the opening frame. Unfortunately, Bishard's lead didn't last and Weiss emerged as a 6-2, 6-3 victor to wrap up the match.
• Down on line five, Nguyen found herself ahead 6-3, 5-4 against Prudhomme in a showdown which would have extended the match. In her second-flight matchup with Occhipinti, Gavino won the opening set 6-2 and was embroiled in a hotly-contested tilt with the Lopes' line two competitor at the time the match was called.
• Challa dropped a narrow 7-6 decision in her opening set of top flight action against Puehse and was trailing 3-1 at the time the match was called.
COMING UP NEXT
• NM State turns its attention to the 2021-22 season, having wrapped up their 2021 campaign with a 6-14 record which featured a 4-2 showing in Western Athletic Conference (WAC) tilts.
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