THE FIRST SERVE
• Following over 10 weeks of fine-tuning their skills against one another, the NM State women's tennis team will share the court with an opponent on Thursday as they visit the Grand Canyon State to open their spring season against No. 19 Arizona State.
• The Aggies were originally scheduled to begin their season against the Sun Devils on Monday, Dec. 16, however, they were forced to postpone the season opener due to inclement weather.
• Thursday's match will represent the Aggies' lone road match during the first month and a half of play as NM State will not be on unfamiliar courts again until March 3 when they visit UNLV. Until then, the Aggies will host seven matches with a match against New Mexico on Feb. 25 capping off the extended homestand.
• NM State was most recently in action at the UTEP Invitational in El Paso, Texas, from Nov. 4-6. There, the Aggies were able to win 22 matches across singles and doubles play during the three-day event.
• After competing against the Sun Devils, NM State will head back down Interstate 10 to collide with Western New Mexico in its first home match of the season on Saturday at 2 p.m. After hosting just four matches last spring, Head Coach Emily Wang and her squad will compete at the NM State Tennis Center 13 times this season.
• Lisa Zhu hopes to lead the Aggies this season after posting NM State's best winning percentage during the spring season in 2021-22 – finishing with a 14-7 overall record, including going 12-5 at the No. 2 spot.
• Senior Bella Nguyen will look to build off a strong close to her spring season last year when she won her final four matches to help lead the Aggies to a WAC Tournament title and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
• Nguyen's contributions will also carry over to doubles play where she and fellow senior Miranda Bishard finished with an 11-8 record when playing together one season ago.
 
COMING UP NEXT
• Next, NM State's schedule will feature Texas A&M-Corpus Christi which will make its way to Las Cruces on Tues., Jan. 24 with matches set to get underway at 11 a.m.