ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A strong start for the NM State women's tennis team featured the Aggies securing the doubles point against their longtime rivals from The Duke City, but New Mexico won five of the six singles bouts to walk away with a 5-2 win Saturday afternoon.
The Aggies dropped to 0-8 on the year with the setback while New Mexico improved to 5-1.
DOUBLES
• Paired together in flight three action, Bella Nguyen and Georgia Townsend set the tone for the visitors in tandem play. Nguyen and Townsend secured a 6-3 triumph over the Lobos' duo of Sarah O'Connor and Marie Sodre.
• New Mexico answered with a win in line two action. Gavi Kalaga and Natsuki Nishimura were on the wrong end of a 6-2 decision against Hsuan Huang and Hsiang-Wen Huang.
• With the doubles point up for grabs, all hopes went to the Aggies' top-flight tandem of Chloe Gavino and Lisa Zhu. NM State's line one pairing made all the right moves, doubling up Yue Lin Chen and Myu Kageyama by a 6-3 tally to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
SINGLES
• Zhu continued her dominance of the Lobos on the day, this time in singles action, to push the visitors' lead to 2-0. On line two, Zhu claimed a 6-3, 6-1 triumph over O'Connor to put NM State just two points away from victory.
• New Mexico started its comeback in top-line action when Gavino grabbed just four games from Chen in a 6-2, 6-2 loss.
• The Lobos managed to even things up at 2-2 with another win, this one in flight five action. Nguyen won a trio of games in her opening set but Hsiang-Wen Huang pulled away in the second to claim a 6-3, 6-1 decision and tie things up.
• Kageyama put the home team just one point away from victory in her fourth-flight battle with Kalaga. After winning four games in her opening set with Kageyama, Kalaga found it difficult to get anything going the rest of the way and dropped a 6-4, 6-0 decision.
• New Mexico clinched the win when Hsuan Huang defeated Nishimura by a 6-3, 6-1 score.
• Townsend pushed Satoho Toriumi to the brink in the first set of sixth-flight play, but suffered a 7-5, 6-1 loss to close out the match.
COMING UP NEXT
• NM State has no more matches on its schedule in the month of February. The Aggies' next set of showdowns are set to take place in early March in Las Vegas, Nev. A two-match weekend begins Friday, March 4, with a 10:00 a.m. tilt at Mountain West foe UNLV at the Fertitta Tennis Complex.
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