SILVER CITY, N.M. – The Western New Mexico University tennis teams opened Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play strong with convincing victories at home over CSU-Pueblo. The women came away with a 9-0 victory, while the men won, 8-1, Saturday at the WNMU Tennis Courts.


On the women's side, WNMU (6-14, 1-0 RMAC) started out by rolling through doubles play. At the top position and No. 3, WNMU won by a score of 8-0, with Ganna Tiurina (Kiev, Ukraine/M.M. Gromov #227) and Ashley Newell (Las Vegas, NV/Silverado) at the top flight and Claudia Osuna (Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico/Tec Milenio ) and Marie Monier (Saint Etienne, France/St Paul Forez Montbrison) at the third position. In the other doubles match, Doris Berberic (Lower Hutt, New Zealand/Hutt Valley High School) and Diamond Morrill (Carlsbad, NM/Carlsbad) pulled out an 8-3 victory at No. 2. In singles, Tiurina and Davida Aragon (Arenas Valley, NM/Cobre High School) each won by scores of 6-1, 6-0 with Tiurina's coming at No. 1 and Aragon at No. 6. Newell dropped just two games at No. 2 going on to the 6-2, 6-0 victory. Osuna cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 3. Monier and Berberic helped finish off the sweep with Monier winning, 6-3, 6-3 at No. 4 and Berberic with a 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 5.


On the men's side, #33 WNMU (10-12, 1-0 RMAC) dominated two of the doubles matches, while the top flight went right down to the end. Alvaro Nunez (Madrid, Spain/) and Francisco Damasio (Jundiai, Brazil/Centro Educational Sigma ) pulled out an 8-2 win at No. 2, while Jorge Carretero (Asturias, Spain/) and Matthieu Covizzi (Noailly, France/) rolled to an 8-1 win at No. 3. At the top position, Juan Pablo Fuentes (Guadalajara, Mexico/) and Omar Lopez (Naucalpan, Mexico/) broke open a 6-6 tie to go on to the 9-7 win. In singles, Fuentes and Roy Ulibarri (Dexter, NM/Dexter High School) won by the same scores of 6-2, 6-0, with Fuentes' coming at the top spot and Ulibarri's at No. 5. Nunez and Damasio also won in straight sets, with Nunez winning at No. 3, 6-4, 6-1 and Damasio at No. 4, 6-4, 6-3. At No. 6, Carretero came back from an opening set 6-3 setback, to take the final two sets, 6-1 and 6-2. In the final singles match, Covizzi dropped the first set, 6-4 and then came back with a 6-1 second set win before dropping a third set super tiebreaker, 10-3.


The match also marked the final home matches for four seniors, Doris Berberic (Lower Hutt, New Zealand/Hutt Valley High School), Davida Aragon (Arenas Valley, NM/Cobre High School), Matthieu Covizzi (Noailly, France/) and Roy Ulibarri (Dexter, NM/Dexter High School).


WNMU will continue RMAC play this coming Friday in Denver as they will face Metro State University.