PHOENIX – The New Mexico State women's tennis team dropped a tightly contested match to host Grand Canyon Sunday afternoon at the GCU Tennis Facility 4-3.
 
Grand Canyon (8-7, 3-0 WAC) took court No. 3 to open up doubles action before Yadira Rubio and Lindsay Harlas bested Martina Lo Pumo and Ludovica Infantino 6-4 on court No. 2. Harsha Challa and Gavi Kalaga had a hard-fought back-and-forth against GCU's top doubles team before falling 7-5 and went down 1-0.
 
Rebecca Keijzerwaard knotted things up for the Aggies shortly after the start of singles action when she took down Emilia Occhipinti 6-1, 6-1. Kalaga then gave New Mexico State (8-6, 2-1 WAC) the 2-1 advantage after dominating GCU's Autum Prudhomme 6-1, 6-0 at the No. 6 singles position.
 
Celia Morel tied it back up for Grand Canyon when she bested Harlas on court No. 2 6-2, 6-3 before Challa gave the Aggies the 3-2 edge with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Celina Buhr at the No. 2 singles position.
 
Lo Pumo then tied the match back up at 3-3 after besting Gavino on court No. 4 6-2, 6-3. Up one set, 6-4, Rubio wasn't able to fend off Infantino on court No. 5 and lost a heartbreaker 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) – which handed the Aggies their first loss of conference play.
 
NM State will remain in the greater Phoenix area and play Arizona State (March 27) at 11 a.m. (MT) before taking on Mesa CC later in the day at 3 p.m.