Match Twelve
NM State (3-8) at Northern Arizona (7-4)
Friday, Feb. 25 | 4:00 p.m. | NAU Tennis Center | Flagstaff, Ariz.
Match Thirteen
NM State vs. Mesa Community College
Saturday, Feb. 26 | 10:00 a.m. | NAU Tennis Center | Flagstaff, Ariz.
THE FIRST SERVE
• Coming of a three-match swing at the H-E-B Tournament of Champions last week, the NM State men's tennis team travels northwest to Flagstaff, Ariz., where they'll tangle with Northern Arizona Friday afternoon to begin a two-match weekend.
• The Aggies are also slated to face off against Mesa Community College Saturday morning at the NAU Tennis Center.
• Last week NM State swapped around its first and second flight doubles teams with the duo of Gijs Akkermans and Corey Clarke moving up to the top line. Akkermans and Clarke secured a pair of wins there, improving to 5-4 on the year in the process.
• Though they dropped down to line two, Louis Menard and Jordy Visser didn't let that deter them as they also added two more triumphs to their record. Menard and Visser top the Aggies' doubles wins charts with a mark of 6-4 after going 2-1 at the H-E-B Tournament of Champions last week.
• Freshman Itay Feigin collected his second singles win of the month in NM State's narrow 4-3 victory over DePaul late Friday night. Feigin's 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 win over the Blue Demons' Tripp Tuff was the match-clinching point NM State needed to pick up its first dual match win of the month.
• Feigin and Visser both have three singles wins to their credit, tied for the most on the team thus far in 2022.
• NM State's matches in Flagstaff, Ariz., this weekend mark the end of a stretch of 13 consecutive matches away from home to open the 2022 dual season.
SCOUTING NORTHERN ARIZONA | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• Following a 6-1 start to the dual match portion of its season, Northern Arizona has gone 1-3 in its last four outings. That includes a pair of setbacks against Arizona as well as an additional one in Albuquerque, N.M., at New Mexico.
• The Lumberjacks begin a four-match homestand Friday which wraps up with their Big Sky opener against Eastern Washington on Sunday, March 6.
• Dominik Buzonics (7-4), Alex Groves (7-3) and Maciej Ziomber (9-2) have done most of the winning for Northern Arizona when it comes to singles matches. That trio has accumulated 23 of the team's 39 total one-on-one victories to
this point in 2022 with Ziomber's triumphs occurring exclusively along flights three and four.
• Teaming up in doubles play, Buzonics and Groves have piled up seven of the team's 21 tandem triumphs while playing on lines one and two.
• Daniel Dillon has linked up with a trio of his teammates in doubles play this season and has a 7-3 mark to show for his efforts.
• Friday afternoon's matchup between NM State and Northern Arizona is the first dual match tilt between the two clubs since Saturday, Feb. 14, 2015. That day, the Aggies dropped a narrow 4-3 decision to the Lumberjacks.
SCOUTING MESA COMMUNITY COLLEGE | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• The Thunderbirds are headed to Flagstaff, Ariz., for their first road match of the 2022 dual match season. Following a 9-0 win over Imperial Valley to begin the year, Mesa Community College has fell in back-to-back matches against Arizona Christian (6-3) and Ottawa (Ariz.) (7-2).
• Arturo Salvo (3-0) is the only member of the team who has not suffered a singles setback this season as he has won all three of his one-on-one bouts.
• NM State and Mesa Community College last crossed paths on the courts on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019. That day, the Aggies posted a 6-1 triumph with Louis Menard and Martin Simecek coming up with singles wins.
COMING UP NEXT
• NM State gets set for its first home match of 2022 on Sunday, March 6, when it welcomes New Mexico Military Institute to the NM State Tennis Center for a 2:00 p.m. showdown.
++NM State++
