SURPRISE, Ariz.— Colorado Mesa University senior Thiago Nejm improved to 4-0 in singles play as he claimed the Mavericks' lone win in a 4-1 road defeat at the hands of the Ottawa University-Arizona Spirit on Friday afternoon here at the Surprise Tennis Center.
 
Nejm won his No. 6 singles match by a 6-0, 6-4 score over Alan Vasquez.
 
Moises Cure and Jandre van Wyk were also winning their No. 4 and 5 singles matches, but both of those went unfinished as the Spirit claimed two doubles wins and three of the first four singles affairs to hand the Mavericks (3-1) their first team loss of the season.  OUAZ improved to 2-0 on the day after knocking off Western New Mexico, 4-2 earlier in the day.
 
In doubles, Austin Todd and Michael Loyd defeated CMU's Christian Albrechtsen and Tyler Landen, 6-3 in the top flight while Andres Reyes and Grzegorz Rudnicki won by the same score over Steven Howe and van Wyk in the No. 2 match.
 
Cure and Nejm were also leading their No. 3 doubles match, which went unfinished as the Spirit clinched the doubles point.
 
Nejm's victory then tied the score at 1-1 before Rudnicki and Reyes both claimed 3-set wins over Landen and Albrechtsen, to seize the momentum.  Todd then knocked off Howe, 6-4, 6-4 to claim the win.  Rudnicki and Reyes are ranked 25^th and 36^th in the Oracle/ITA NAIA National Rankings.  Todd is also ranked 16^th in the West Region.
 
The Mavericks will face Western New Mexico on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. before heading to Glendale for a 4 p.m. encounter at Arizona Christian to wrap up the weekend.