ITA Mountain Regional Draws/Results
PROVO, Utah - Survive and advance.
That is exactly what NM State men's tennis senior Louis Menard did Tuesday during day one of the ITA Mountain Regional tournament at the BYU Outdoor Tennis Courts in Provo. After the Aggies' doubles dreams were dashed, NM State's Frenchman stepped up in one-on-one play to remain in the running for a regional crown.
DOUBLES
• NM State's doubles teams found themselves unable to sustain the success they experienced at last week's ITA Bedford Cup in the Mountains. Gijs Akkermans and Corey Clarke, who won the doubles event last week in Colorado Springs, Colo., were eliminated in the opening round of the ITA Mountain Regional.
• Akkermans and Clarke suffered an 8-6 setback to Denver's duo of Daniel Krulig and Peter Sallay, knocking them out of contention.
• Like Akkermans and Clarke, Louis Menard and Martin Simecek were eliminated as well. That NM State pair found themselves on the wrong end of an 8-3 decision to Utah's Jayson Blando and Ryan Ta.
SINGLES
• Though Simecek was able to even up his opening-round one-on-one bout with Weber State's Bo-Han Li, NM State's junior was unable to finish the job. Li claimed a 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 victory over Simecek in order to advance to the round of 64.
• The first Aggie to make it through to the round of 64, Akkermans played near-flawless tennis in order to remain in contention. NM State's Dutchman collected a 6-1, 6-0 victory over BYU's Josh Pearce in their first-round matchup.
• Shortly after Akkermans moved on to the round of 64, Clarke followed suit. The Australian played his way past Idaho's Videk Ramesh by a 6-4, 6-3 score to punch his ticket to the second round.
• In the round of 64, Akkermans tried to hang with Boise State's Luka Soskic, but fell by a score of 6-2, 6-4 to see his run in the regional meet come to an end.
• Clarke found himself one set away from the round of 32, but Utah's Bruno Krenn battled back. In the end, Clarke was on the wrong end of a 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 decision against his Pac-12 foe and did not make it to the round of 32.
• The final Aggie on the courts Tuesday was Menard who battled Montana's Gustav Thielgaard in a round of 64 match. By way of an 6-2, 6-2 win, Menard became the only Aggie to move on to the round of 32.
COMING UP NEXT
• At 11:15 a.m. Wednesday morning, Menard will make an attempt to move on to the ITA Mountain Regional round of 16. He'll take on Denver's Krulig for the right to do so.
++NM State++
