BEAUMONT, Texas - Survive and advance? More like dominate and advance.
Avoiding any potential upset-related drama, the second-seeded NM State women's tennis team dictated things from the first serve and earned a 4-0 shutout win over seventh-seeded Chicago State in the quarterfinal round of the WAC Tournament Friday afternoon at the Beaumont Municipal Tennis Center.
DOUBLES
• One of the best doubles pairing in the WAC got things started for the higher-seeded team. Chloe Gavino and Lisa Zhu, who were named to the All-WAC Doubles First Team on Wednesday afternoon, played near-flawless tennis to make quick work of the Cougars' top-line duo of Katarina Drazic and Lizi Morgoshia. Gavino and Zhu scored a 6-1 win over Chicago State's tandem to move to 14-4 on the season.
• Chicago State, however, managed to make the doubles point interesting. Miranda Bishard and Bella Nguyen managed to secure just a pair of games in their 6-2 loss to the Cougars' Diana Borodina and Sofiya Sedovich in third-flight action.
• Those results meant all eyes were on the second-flight showdown. Gavi Kalaga and Natsuki Nishimura saw their once-comfortable lead evaporate, but the Aggies' duo broke a 5-5 deadlock by claiming the final two games. Their 7-5 win over Chicago State's Katarina Dukic and Kristina Pukhaeva gave the Aggies both the doubles point and a 1-0 advantage headed into one-on-one action.
SINGLES
• Intent on making sure Chicago State never had a chance to get back in the thick of things, the Aggies went right to work in closing out the quarterfinal bout once one-on-one play started.
• Gavino pushed NM State's lead to 2-0 in less than an hour, needing just 57 minutes to score a 6-2, 6-2 top-flight win over Drazic which also ended a three-match losing skid in one-on-one action for the junior out of Tucson, Ariz.
• Claiming her fourth singles win in the last five she took part in, Nishimura pushed NM State to the brink of victory in flight three action. The junior's 6-3, 6-0 win over Borodina hiked the higher seed's edge to 3-0.
• It was Nguyen who finished off the Cougars and provided the match-clinching point for her team. Battling back in the opening set, NM State's fifth-flight player closed out her team's shutout win by generating a 7-5, 6-2 triumph over Morgoshia.
COMING UP NEXT
• A trip to the WAC Tournament title bout is on the line for NM State Saturday. The second-seeded Aggies will take on either third-seeded SFA or sixth-seeded Sam Houston in one of the two semifinal matchups set for noon MT at the Beaumont Municipal Tennis Center.
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