LAS CRUCES – After eight straight matches on the road, the New Mexico State women’s tennis team returns home to host Tulane, Saturday, March 28 at 10 a.m. at the NM State Tennis Center. The Aggies enter the match with a 6-7 record and are looking to get back to .500 for the first time since March 14.
NM State comes into the match having won its last contest, as they toppled UT-Arlington 4-3 in its final match of the 2009 Barnes Collegiate Invitational in San Diego last week. The Aggies have played in five one-point matches this season, winning three of those.
Junior Sophia Marks has led New Mexico State this season, playing exclusively at the No. 1 singles position. She has gone 8-2 in her last 10 matches and is 9-4 overall on the year. That record is the second best in the conference at the No. 1 position and it only trails Boise State’ Pichittra Thongdach, who is ranked No. 83 in the nation.
This season, like most, the doubles point has proven to be crucial towards NM State winning or losing a match. The Aggies are 6-2 this year when they’ve won the doubles point, but are 0-5 when they don’t capture it.
Tulane currently stands at 8-10 on the year and they host No. 57 Oregon Thursday night before heading over to the Mesilla Valley. The Waves enter that match having lost their last three contests.
Freshman Mariam Kurdadze has paced Tulane this season and she has a team-best 15-3 spring singles record. Kurdadze has won her last nine matches and is a perfect 7-0 this season when playing at the second position.
This match is New Mexico State’s second to last non-conference test of the season, with this one and the other sandwiching the Aggies’ first two league matches of the season. NM State’s plays Nevada and San Jose State, March 3-4, in Reno, Nev., before hosting I-10 rival UTEP, April 8.
