New Mexico Military Institute Colt tennis earned the No. 3 overall seed in the team portion of the NMAA's Class 3A State Championships. After a first-round bye, the Colts made relatively quick work of No. 11 Espanola Valley in the quartfinal round, 5-0.

NMMI swept the three doubles matches and needed just two wins out out of the six remaining singles matches - they got both before play was completed in the other four, with wins by Mason Hicks (No. 3 singles) and Fabrizio Cano (No. 6 singles).

"Winning the doubles match kind of put me in a good mood going into singles," said NMMI's Mason Hicks. "I kind of lost my cool in the third game [of singles] but then i brought it back together to get the win. Overall, the team was pretty dominant today."

With the win, NMMI heads to the semis tomorrow at 8:00 am vs. the No. 2 seed, Santa Fe Prep. Prep beat No. 7 Hope Christian 5-2 in their quartefinal match-up.

"I think if we all play together as a team and we get our doubles together, we can beat Santa Fe Prep tomorrow," said NMMI sophomore Logan Reidy. Reidy plays No. 3 doubles with senior Nicholas Vanlue.

"It all started last night with a bribe for ice cream," joked head NMMI coach Chadd Mann. "That's how we got though this round. "We were pretty convinced that we could come in and get a solid win against Espanola Valley - and we did the work we were supposed to do. Next round vs. Santa Fe Prep is going to be tough. We'll definitely have to show up tomorrow. We be starting tomrrow with singles - I think that will be a good thing. We're very strong at the top end of our line-up, so if can come in and win four of those singles matches off the bat, then we just need one doubles win. That's our goal - we need five wins to get to the finals. It's doable, but we'll have to play well as a team.