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Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - The New Mexico State women's tennis team defeated New Mexico 6-1 Saturday afternoon at the NM State Tennis Center for its first win in the Rio Grande Rivalry in eight seasons.

NM State opened by winning the doubles point after senior Sophia Marks and sophomore partner Manon Sylvain clinched the point on court two with a 9-7 decision. The Aggies went on to win five of the six singles matches to defeat the Lobos for only the third time in school history.

With the victory, the Aggies end a two-match losing streak and improve to 6-7 overall this season. New Mexico falls to 1-9 this season.

"We're excited to win this match," said head coach Don Ball. "We thought we matched up well against them but you never know during these rivalry matches it can get a bit dicey."  Continue Reading This Post >>

Jahmar Young. Wow. He struggled all night long getting his shot. He might have cost his team the chance to play in the championship game with his technical foul with 13:00 left to play that saw the Wolf Pack get a five point possession. But instead of being the goat, he goes down in history as the hero. His 15-foot jumper with 3.8 seconds kept the Aggies perfect in games decided by six points or less, the Aggies are 10-0 in those such games. Troy Gillenwater brought his 'A' game last night as well as he picked up the scoring for the Aggies with Jahmar Young and Jonathan Gibson held below their season averages. Gillenwater finished with 21 points and eight rebounds and nailed all three of his three point attempts. Wendell McKines was a beast finishing with 16 points and 10 rebounds, five of them offensive. Every single player that stepped on the court for New Mexico State contributed. They all scored and the Aggies needed every single point.

The Aggie defense which has been much maligned the past week and a half came up big. They turned Nevada over 14 times the Aggie defense held Nevada to just six offensive rebounds and even though Nevada's Luke Babbitt had a career night against the Aggies, the team made sure that the other players on the team didn't get going. Joey Shaw and Armon Johnson each had 13 but the biggest number of the night was 0. That was the total number of points that Brandon Fields had against New Mexico State last night after torching the Aggies for a career-high 32 last week.

Up next it's the final piece of the redemption puzzle for the Aggies as they take on top seed Utah State. The Aggies have avenged one of last week's two losses that cost them the regular season title and they'll look to finish off their run tonight. Utah State breezed by an injury riddled Louisiana Tech in the first semifinal winning 85-55. Utah State will be plenty rested as only one starter played more than 30 minutes for the Aggies in the blowout. None of the other players played more than 25 minutes the entire game.

For the Aggies, fatigue will be a concern. Last night's game was a physical and emotional war. One has to wonder if the Aggies have anything left in the tank for tonight's game. However, Coach Menzies doesn't believe will be an issue. He pointed to all the high-emotion games the Aggies have played this season, at New Mexico, at UTEP, at UCLA, at Utah State just last week. "I don't think it'll affect it at all, the emotional part. We've had a lot of emotional games this year." He added, "We are resilient. These young men will be ready to play tomorrow and give another valiant effort. We didn't get zapped energy wise. They'll be fine, they'll be ready to play."

We only bring it up because it's happened before. In this exact same situation. In the 2008 WAC Tournament the 3-seed Aggies did battle with 2-seed Nevada. The Wolf Pack had swept the Aggies during the regular season but the Aggies won an absolute war in the semifinals. The next night New Mexico State took the floor for the championship game and quickly found themselves down 19-4. Yes, they battled back and the game turned into an epic triple-overtime thriller but the Aggies lost that game and one has to wonder if the previous night's game with Nevada was the cause for the Aggies' sluggish start to the championship game.

We'll find out tonight just how much the Aggies have left in the tank after last night's game. Tonight's game is scheduled for a 8:00 p.m. MT tip-off and will be televised on ESPN2. It's the rubber match between the two teams with the ultimate prize on the line... a trip to the NCAA Tournament.

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The semifinal games on Friday were polar opposites. In the first semifinal the top seeded Utah State Aggies annihilated a depleted Louisiana Tech team winning 85-55. Louisiana Tech lost big man Magnum Rolle inside the first couple minutes of the game to an injured ankle. From there on out it was all Utah State as the Aggies held a comfortable 46-24 halftime lead. The big cushion allowed USU head coach Stew Morrill to rest his players as only Tyler Newbold played more than 30 minutes (31) while the rest of the starters played no more than 25 minutes each. Utah State shot 58.8 percent for the game and hit 11-of-22 three point attempts en route to the championship game.

The second semifinal was a semifinal game for the ages. Nevada jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead which would be their largest of the game. The Aggies answered and led by two, 42-40 at halftime. In the second half the Aggies opened up an eight point lead with just over 13 minutes left to play but five quick points from Nevada coming off an and-one and a technical foul put the Wolf Pack right back in it and the game was tight the rest of the way. The two teams traded the lead six times in the final three and a half minutes and there were two ties and five lead changes in the final 1:43 which was capped off by a Jahmar Young jumper from 15 feet out with 3.8 seconds left to win the game.

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Jahmar Young drained a leaning 15-foot jumper with 3.8 seconds left to play to give the Aggies an 80-79 victory over 2-seed and tournament host Nevada on Friday night. The Aggies survived a career night from Nevada's Luke Babbitt who finished with 33 points and eight rebounds and was a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line.

The Aggies trailed early as the Wolf Pack jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead less two minutes into the game. New Mexico State would cut the lead to 7-5 after a Wendell McKines layup and a Jonathan Gibson three pointer. The two teams would take their first lead after Troy Gillenwater hit a pair of free throws with 16:09 left to play in the first half.

Nevada would go on a 5-0 run to retake the lead 16-11 before the Aggies answered with a 6-0 run to regain the lead at 17-16 with 12:38 left to play in the half. With the Aggies trailing 28-27 with 5:38 left in the first half, the Aggies would go on a 7-0 run sparked by five quick points from Troy Gillenwater who hit a pair of free throws with 5:24 left in the half and then followed it up with a three pointer on the Aggies' next possession. Tyrone Watson would add a layup to cap the 7-0 run prompting the Wolf Pack to call a 30-second timeout. Out of the timeout the Wolf Pack struck quickly to cut the lead back to one point as Luke Babbitt answered the Aggies' run with a personal 7-0 run on a jumper with 3:31 left in the half followed by a three pointer with 3:05 left to play in the half and capped with another jumper with 2:28 left in the half to give the Wolf Pack a 35-34 lead. Jahmar Young would give the Aggies the lead back hitting a three pointer with 2:11. Joey Shaw answered with a tip-in to tie the game at 37 with 1:53 left in the half. After a pair of Hernst Laroche free throws put the Aggies up by two points at 39-37, Troy Gillenwater would hit a three pointer with 16 seconds left before halftime. However, Armon Johnson would bury a three with four seconds left to play in the half to send the game into the break with the Aggies leading just 42-40.  Continue Reading This Post >>

The Aggie men's basketball team defeated San Jose State last night 80-69. The Aggies held the league's second best three point shooting team to just 5-of-17 (29.4 percent) from beyond the three point arc. They also held the league's leading scorer, Adrian Oliver, in check. Oliver finished with 23 points, right around his season average, however, it was a quiet 23 points. He didn't really hit any run sparking shots and he had to work for most of those points. The Aggies did well on the boards most of the night as well. They outrebounded San Jose State 38-25 and limited SJSU to just eight offensive rebounds.

Jonathan Gibson had a very good night as he led the team with 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting. He also hit 4-of-7 three pointers. Jahmar Young had an outstanding all around game as he finished with 16 points, eight in each half, four rebounds, six assists and a steal.

The Aggies will meet Nevada in the second semifinal tonight at 9:00 p.m. MT. The Wolf Pack dismantled Idaho 87-71 to set up the meeting between the two rivals. The Aggies are hoping that history will repeat itself tonight. During the 2007-2008 season the Aggies were swept by the Wolf Pack during the regular season in eerily similar fashion to this season. Nevada won 87-78 in Las Cruces in a game whose final score was much closer than the actual game was. The Pack then won 98-85 in Reno later in the season (though the Aggies were never really in that game in '07-'08 wheres this year's game in Reno was up for grabs until late).

The two met in the semifinal round under the same circumstances as this season, Nevada as the 2-seed, New Mexico State as the 3-seed. The Aggies prevailed that night and advanced to the championship game (which is where the Aggies hope history stops repeating itself as they fell in the epic triple overtime game to 4-seed Boise State).

Tonight's game will be televised on ESPN2 at 9:00 p.m. MT. Streaming audio is also available via Aggie Access (subscription required). Streaming video will also be available via ESPN360.com.

The Aggie baseball team kicks off a three game series with Georgia State tonight. The Aggies are coming off a midweek split with No. 22 New Mexico. Georgia State comes into Presley Askew off a 2009 season in which they were an NCAA Regional participant. Georgia State is 6-6 on the season and coming off a seven game homestand in which they went 6-1 and averaged a school record 22 runs per game.

There could be plenty of offensive fireworks in this series as two quality teams do battle. Today's game is scheduled for a 6:05 p.m. start time. Streaming video will be available via Aggie Access (subscription required).

The Aggie softball team is in Clearwater, FL for the USF UnderArmour Showcase. Day one has been rained out. The Aggies were scheduled to face Long Island (8-8) and Florida Gulf Coast (6-6) today.

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