Box Score
ABILENE, Texas - With a share of the WAC regular-season title on the line, NM State battled tooth and nail against Lamar before ultimately coming up short in their high-level tilt by a 4-3 margin.
The Aggies suffered their first WAC setback of the year with the result, dropping them to 4-1 in league action. Lamar clinched the league's outright regular-season crown with the win, meaning NM State will need a win on Sunday to lock up the number two seed for the upcoming WAC Tournament.
DOUBLES
• Getting the upper hand on NM State immediately, Lamar won all three doubles matches to open up a 1-0 lead. The first one of those triumphs came on line three when Itay Feigin and Martin Simecek took just a single game from Joshua Taylor and Martin Garcia-Ripoll in a 6-1 result.
• The Cardinals clinched the tandem point on line two as Gijs Akkermans and Corey Clarke stumbled in a 6-3 loss to Max Amling and Filippo Salsini.
• Louis Menard and Jordy Visser had the best chance of scoring a doubles win, but instead dropped a narrow 7-6 (7-2) decision to Juan Jose Rodriguez Garceran and Daniel Sancho Arbizu.
SINGLES
• Akkermans got a measure of revenge in one-on-one play, picking up a 6-4, 6-4 fifth-flight triumph over Salsini to pull his team even with Lamar.
• Moments later, though, Rodriguez Garceran walked away with a 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 victory against Simecek in flight two action to put NM State at a 2-1 disadvantage.
• Clarke appeared poised to provided a second deadlock in the high-profile WAC showdown, but couldn't keep his strong start going. NM State's Australian fell by a 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 score to Amling on line three.
• Battling back when their teammates needed them most, NM State's fourth and sixth-flight competitors kept the Aggies alive. Feigin fought hard and trimmed Lamar's lead to 3-2 by way of a 6-4, 6-4 victory against Garcia-Ripoll.
• About a half-hour later, Visser gutted out a three-set win of his own to make matters 3-3. Brandon Do couldn't keep up with Visser as the Aggies' sixth-flight competitor picked up a 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (7-2) win which set up a winner-take-all showdown in top-flight action.
• For a shade over three hours, Menard and Sancho Arbizu were locked in a back-and-forth showdown. After falling behind through one set, NM State's senior Frenchman forced a decisive third frame thanks to a 7-6 (7-4) victory in the middle frame. Menard looked as though he was going to be the hero after jumping ahead 3-0 in the third set, but Lamar's top-flight competitor roared back to win his one-on-one battle as well as the match by winning six of the next seven games. Menard's 6-4, 6-7 (7-4), 6-4 loss closed out the best WAC match of the season.
COMING UP NEXT
• NM State takes aim at the number two seed for the 2022 WAC Championships Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m. MT when when it faces off against Abilene Christian at the John T.L. Jones Tennis Building.
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