HOUSTON – The Northwestern State tennis team endured a tough first day at the Rice Invite on Friday.
Nico Tagami's singles victory against Sam Houston's Isabella Garza gave the Lady Demons their lone victory of the day in which Northwestern played two rounds of doubles and one singles match.
 
"We were hesitant in doubles," fourth-year head coach Marcos Morelli said. "In singles, each match was different, but overall, we need to be better. There's still a lot of work to be done."
 
Coming off a 3-0 mark in the Lady Demon Invitational during the opening weekend of the fall season, Tagami maintained her unbeaten start to the fall with her fourth consecutive straight-set victory, taking down Garza, 6-1, 6-3, in the opening match of the round-robin Flight 8.
 
Tagami's next match comes against Tulane's Dealnie Tribby on Saturday.
 
Elsewhere in singles play, Athina Grigoriadou fell to Rice's Uma Bakaityte in straight sets, 6-2-6-2 in Flight 2, Martina Acebedo Bonocore dropped a 6-0, 6-1 decision to UTRGV's Rhea Makesar in Flight 3 and Zala Vnuk lost in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, to UTRGV's Hitakamya Narwal.
 
Grigoriadou will face UTRGV's Mirka Delaney, Bonocore will duel with Sam Houston's Sara Sadadinovic and Vnuk will tangle with Louisiana Tech's Carolina Correia in Saturday's singles matches.
 
In doubles action, the pairing of Grigoriadou and Bonocore fell to UTRGV's Mariangel Estrella and Makesar, 6-3, and UTSA's Gabriela Felix da Silva and Katsiaryna Dubik, 6-4. They will face Louisiana Tech's Natalia Trigosso and Lucia Gallegos on Saturday in Flight 1 play.
 
In Flight 3 doubles play, Tagami and Vnuk dropped their opener to Daniela Chica and Anuska Ashar, 6-1, and came up short, 6-3, to the UTRGV pair of Madeleine Joffe and Mirka Delaney. NSU's freshmen will face Sam Houston's Maria Gajete and Anamaria Kurtsikhashvili on Saturday.
 
The tournament continues at 9 a.m. Saturday at Rice's George R. Brown Tennis Center. The teams will play one doubles and one singles match each.