College Tennis News - Aggies Set for Season Opening Matches

LAS CRUCES – The New Mexico State women’s tennis team is set for its first three dual matches of the season as the Aggies travel out to Las Vegas, Nev. to face Weber State, No. 43 UNLV and Pacific this weekend at UNLV’s Frank and Vicki Fertitta Tennis Complex.

NMSU’s first match comes on Friday, Jan. 25 against Weber State and then the Aggies face UNLV on Saturday and Pacific on Sunday. All matches are set for 11:00 a.m. MDT.

New Mexico State looked sharp in its exhibition dual match with Mexico’s Monterrey Tech on Tuesday, Jan. 22, winning 6-1. All five singles victories in the mach came in straight sets and NMSU had no problem in doubles, sweeping Monterrey Tech.

Head coach Don Ball is excited to see his team challenged very early in the season, as UNLV and Pacific have very good squads once again this year.

“We have two very tough matches ahead of us this weekend,” Ball said. “We always play a pretty good match against UNLV and we’ll have a good chance against Pacific.”

Junior Stephanie Eusebe (Champs sur Marne, France) and sophomore Sophia Marks (Grantham, England) look to get their Aggies careers off on a good start, as the two will be playing in their first career dual matches for New Mexico State.

Sophomore Aleksa Costa was the hottest Aggie at the end of the 2007 season, as she won five out of her last six matches and she is hoping that her success towards the end of last year carries over into this season.

The Aggies opened up the 2007 season with three matches against the same three opponents also in Las Vegas. Host UNLV defeated NMSU 7-0 in the first match of the season before the Aggies came back one day later and defeated Weber State, 6-1.

Seniors Zeljka Juricek (Zagreb, Croatia) and Anne Fagegaltier (Montreuil, France) along with junior Paulina Zuniga (Guadalupe, Mexico) all picked up victories in their singles matches against WSU last season.

Then in the final match of the 2007 opening weekend Pacific swept the Aggies for the 7-0 victory.

NMSU has won three out of its last four season opening matches and seven out of its last 11. In eight out of the last 11 years, the Aggies have gone 2-1 in its first three matches of the season (in 2000 they went 3-0, in 2007 NMSU was 1-2 and in 1997 the Aggies were 0-3).

All Aggie results and recaps from this weekend’s action can be found on the web at NMSU’s official athletic Web site, www.nmstatesports.com.