LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- The Portland women's tennis team came up short by a 4-3 margin to New Mexico State in a neutral site dual match Saturday afternoon at the Fertitta Tennis Complex. The Pilots fall to 4-5 overall with the loss.

The match was pushed back an hour due to heavy winds that caused havoc for players throughout both singles and doubles play.

The Aggies adjusted better in the early going and secured the doubles point with wins at the No. 1 and No. 3 positions. Portland's No. 2 dynamic duo of Rimona Rouf and Sally Pethybridge improved to x-x this spring with a 6-2 victory.

Rouf evened the score with a 6-3, 6-1 win against Bella Nguyen at No. 5 singles. NMSU picked up a straight sets win at the No. 4 position, but Pilot freshman Aleksandra Dimitrijevic defeated Miranda Bishard 6-3, 6-1 at No. 6 to tie the team score.

The Aggies picked up another win at No. 3 singles before Iva Zelic defeated Chloe Gavino at the top of the lineup in three sets setting up No. 2 singles as the deciding match.

Pethybridge and Mingfang Zhu had a number of marathon rallies, but Zhu was able to hold on for the 6-3, 7-6 (3) win to clinch it for NMSU.

The Pilots will conclude the road trip on Sunday at 10 a.m. against host UNLV. The match will have live scoring the UNLV web site.
 
New Mexico State 4, Portland 3
Las Vegas, Nev. (Fertitta Tennis Complex)
March 5, 2022

Singles
1. Iva Zelic (POR) def. Chloe Gavino (NMSU) 6-2, 3-6, 6-0
2. Mingfang Zhu (NMSU) def. Sally Pethybridge (POR) 6-3, 7-6 (7-3)
3. Natsuki Nishimura (NMSU) def. Neli Sunjic (POR) 6-2, 6-2
4. Gavi Kalaga (NMSU) def. Marija Elenova (POR) 6-1, 6-0
5. Rimona Rouf (POR) def. Bella Nguyen (NMSU) 6-3, 6-1
6. Aleks Dimitrijevic (POR) def. Miranda Bishard (NMSU) 6-3, 6-1

Doubles
1. Chloe Gavino/Mingfang Zhu (NMSU) def. Iva Zelic/Neli Sunjic (POR) 6-4
2. Sally Pethybridge/Rimona Rouf (POR) def. Natsuki Nishimura/Gavi Kalaga (NMSU) 6-2
3. Miranda Bishard/Bella Nguyen (NMSU) def. Angela Schuster/Aleks Dimitrijevic (POR) 6-3

Match Notes:
Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (5,4,6,3,1,2)