Box Score

STEPHENVILLE, Texas - One WAC match, one WAC win.

The NM State women's tennis team strung together consecutive victories for the first time in 2022 by posting a 4-3 triumph over UTRGV in the Aggies' WAC opener Friday afternoon at the Potishman-Lard Tennis Courts on the campus of Tarleton State University.

Friday's victory pushed NM State's record to 3-11 and 1-0 in WAC action. It also let NM State hand UTRGV its first league loss of the 2022 campaign.

DOUBLES
• The winning got started in tandem play where the Aggies collected a clean sweep against their WAC foes from Texas.
• NM State's top-flight paring of Chloe Gavino and Lisa Zhu improved to 7-1 on the year by posting a 6-3 victory over Barbara Martinez and Marjorie Souza.
• Down on line two, Gavi Kalaga and Natsuki Nishimura clinched the doubles point for NM State. Their 6-3 triumph over the Vaqueros' duo of Isabelle Bahr and Katarina Sasaroga allowed the Aggies to gain the upper hand.
• The teams played out the third flight of doubles play, too, with the results once again going to the Aggies. Miranda Bishard and Bella Nguyen pulled away from Kristyna Mamicova and Sandra Putz late in order to earn a 7-5 victory.

SINGLES
• NM State's lead grew to 2-0 shortly after one-on-one play got going. Nishimura had little trouble in her third-line bout with Putz, scoring a dominant 6-1, 6-0 win to pad the Aggies' advantage.
• Minutes later, the Vaqueros broke up the Aggies' shutout bid. Nguyen's 6-4, 6-1 fifth-flight loss to Stefanie Wilske allowed UTRGV to pull within a point, 2-1, of NM State.
• UTRGV took its only lead of the match by way of a sixth-flight win. Bishard slipped up in a 6-4, 6-2 defeat at the hands of Sasaroga, but NM State equalized things at 3-3 minutes later.
• A mere two minutes after UTRGV opened up its lead, Kalaga picked up a 7-5, 6-4 triumph over Martinez.
• With things knotted at 3-3, the decision fell into the lap of Zhu on line two. NM State's freshman locked down the Aggies' first WAC win of the year by way of a 6-4, 6-4 triumph over Souza.
• Though Gavino suffered a 6-7, 6-3, 0-1 (10-6) setback at the hands of Bahr, that UTRGV win wasn't enough to overcome the Aggies' earlier wins.

COMING UP NEXT
• NM State continues its three-day stretch of WAC matches in Texas Saturday afternoon on the campus of Tarleton State University as the Aggies take on Tarleton at 1:00 p.m. MT.

++NM State++