Match Nineteen
NM State (5-13) at UTSA (2-15)
Friday, April 8 | 9:00 a.m. MT | San Antonio, Texas | UTSA Tennis Center
Match Twenty
NM State at UTEP (6-9)
Sunday, April 10 | Noon | El Paso, Texas | El Paso Tennis Club
THE FIRST SERVE
• Stepping out of Western Athletic Conference (WAC) play, the NM State women's tennis team travels to the Lone Star State for a pair of non-league matches this weekend. The Aggies' first stop in Texas is San Antonio, Texas, for a Friday morning showdown at UTSA.
• NM State closes out its two-match week by paying a visit to El Paso, Texas, to take on longtime rival UTEP Sunday afternoon.
• Continuing to pile up the wins, Chloe Gavino and Lisa Zhu added another two triumphs to their doubles win total. The Aggies' top-flight doubles pairing pushed their record to 10-2 after a perfect 2-0 weekend in Seattle, Wash. Gavino and Zhu have been responsible for picking up nearly half of the Aggies' 21 total doubles wins in dual meet action.
• The Aggies' top-line singles competitor, Gavino is riding a team-best three-match unbeaten streak in one-on-one action. She's one of three NM State players who have won at least two-straight singles tilts.
• Both Gavi Kalaga and Natsuki Nishimura have scored wins in each of their last two singles matches. Kalaga's eight dual match singles wins are the second-most among NM State's ranks and the Bhubaneswar, India, product is 7-3 through her last 10 one-on-one matchups.
• Zhu has continued her strong start to the 2022 dual match season, having won seven of her last 10 tilts. Her 10 singles wins lead the team and she's the only NM State competitor who boasts a record about .500 in one-on-one action.
• NM State sits in a tie with Grand Canyon for the top spot in the WAC West Division standings.
SCOUTING UTSA | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• When NM State visits the Alamo City, UTSA will be hoping to string together back-to-back dual match wins for the first time in 2022. The Roadrunners' second win of the 2022 season came last Sunday, when they scored a -35-2 triumph over SWAC foe Prairie View A&M at the UTSA Tennis Center. That win put a stop to a 12-match losing skid for UTSA which dated back to February.
• UTSA's only singles player with a record at or above the .500 level this season is Jasmin Starr. Playing predominantly on line two, Starr's 2022 mark sits at 6-6. That win total has allowed Starr to generate almost half of her team's 13 total singles wins (13-60).
• Starr has seen success in doubles play, too, as she and Sophie Omoworare have gone 5-4 in tandem action. Those five wins represent exactly half of the Roadrunners' 10 doubles triumphs in dual match play this spring.
• UTSA is 4-1 against NM State in the last five dual matches between the two programs. The last two meetings between the Aggies and Roadrunners have both been decided by scores of 4-3.
SCOUTING UTEP | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• The only matchup against an NCAA Division I opponent on the Miners' remaining schedule is Sunday's showdown with NM State. UTEP is eyeing back-to-back wins over NM State for the first time since claiming wins in the I-10 rivalry in both 2015 and 2016.
• A team-high eight of the Miners' 22 doubles wins in dual meet action have come thanks to the tandem of Thassane Abrahim and Veronika Lebisova. Their 8-4 showing gives them three more doubles wins than any other UTEP twosome this spring.
• Lebisova has been a force in singles play, too, having won seven of her 10 one-on-one bouts in 2022. Her 7-3 record is bettered only by Carlotta Mencaglia's mark of 9-5 which includes a 5-2 showing in flight two matches. Mencaglia also comes into Sunday afternoon's match riding a team-best five-match winning streak in singles action.
• UTEP is 2-3 against NM State in the last five dual meet matchups between the two programs.
COMING UP NEXT
• A trip to Phoenix, Ariz., is in line for NM State as it tries to lay claim to a WAC West Division title. NM State's final regular-season weekend of league action sends the Aggies to the campus of Grand Canyon for showdowns against Seattle U (Friday, April 15) and GCU (Saturday, April 16). NM State and GCU are tied for the top spot in the league's standings with two regular-season league bouts left.
++NM State++
