RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) men's tennis team is hosting the New Mexico State (NMSU) Aggies and the Morgan State Bears in the first Rio Grande Valley Invitational at the Orville Cox Tennis Center this weekend.
The Vaqueros (5-11) will play NMSU (4-7) Saturday at 10 a.m. and then face the Bears (2-4) at 3 p.m. The Aggies and Morgan State will play a neutral match Sunday at 1 p.m. These will be the first home matches for UTRGV since Jan. 28.
UTRGV is 4-13 all-time against New Mexico State. Last season, the Vaqueros ended a losing skid against the Aggies with a good 5-2 win in Edinburg. They secured the doubles point and got wins from
Emilien Burnel, Agustin Salazar and
Sam Whitehead. This will be the first time UTRGV and Morgan State play against each other.
The Vaqueros are coming into Saturday's doubleheader with confidence after a dominant 7-0 win at Prairie View A&M. They dropped just one of nine matches in their last outing, enjoying straight-set wins on all six singles courts. Freshman
Will Roberts captured his second consecutive win and didn't give up a single game in his No. 6 match.
After a rapid start to the season, UTRGV's scheduled has balanced out in the last couple weeks. With no travel needed for this weekend's matches, the Vaqueros have taken advantage of being back home and getting in a week's worth of tough practices. They're 2-1 on the home courts this season and feel ready to double that home win count on Saturday.
"The last five weeks have been on the road and I'm happy to finally be home again. Traveling wears me out, so I'm happy to be playing at the Orville Cox Tennis Center," Salazar said. "We've been practicing hard, working on singles and doubles, on not missing wide. New Mexico State used to be in our conference so we've played them and we kind of know what to expect. Morgan State is a new opponent for us. Both matches look to be tough, so we'll have to bring our A game and be ready for anything."
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