ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — In the end, it came down UNM’s winningest active player, a senior in her final home match with everything all square at 3-3. Rachana Bhat, trailing 4-5 in the second set at No. 5 singles, won the final three games to defeat Wiktoria Nosek and give New Mexico a 4-3 win over Boise State.
The win was New Mexico’s fourth consecutive, and it moved the Lobos to 2-0 in the Mountain West. Boise State dropped to 12-7 and 2-3 in the league.
The match was the final one for UNM’s four seniors in Emily Olivier, Dominique Dulski, Ludivene Burgueire and Bhat. They certainly made it a memorable one.
New Mexico seems to have put its doubles troubles behind them, as UNM easily won the doubles point on the strength of two 6-0 wins. Burguiere and Cassie Chung won first at No. 3 before Dulski and Bhat did likewise at No. 1 doubles just seconds later. That meant UNM would only need to split its six singles matches for the win. That’s exactly what happened.
Boise State tied the match with a 6-1, 6-2 win at No. 1 singles but Anja Dokic over Burguiere. The match stayed at 1-1 until three matches ended in rapid fire succession. First it was Diana Wong with a seventh straight win, this at No. 4 singles (6-4, 6-1 over Nancy Menjivar) to make it 2-1, but BSU answered right back at No. 2 singles. Hanna Kantenwein defeated UNM’s Ruth Copas 6-2, 6-2, ending Copas’s modest winning streak at two and tying the match up.
However, Cassie Chung at No. 6 singles gave UNM the lead right back with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Kirsty Venter to push UNM back to a 3-2 lead, and all the action, and a huge throng of spectators, moved over to the first two courts at McKinnon Family Tennis Stadium, for the final two matches.
On court 2, which hosted No. 3 singles, Dominique Dulski and BSU’s Lilian Poling were engaged in a fun back-and-forth affair. Dulski was up 3-0 early, but Poling roared back to take the opening set 6-4. Then Dulski absolutely blitzed Poling, taking the next eight games to go up 4-6, 6-0, 2-0, but Poling came back to take a 3-2 lead. The match then rocked back-and-forth, Dulski tying it up after falling behind each time, at 3-3 and at 4-4.
While that was going on, Bhat was up having won 6-3 in the first but she trailed 3-4 in the second. Bhat found herself down 4-5 needing to hold serve to keep the second set going, which she did. Then, as she broke for 6-5, Dulski went down 6-4, meaning Bhat could end it right there with her 89th career singles win, or be forced to a third set.
That wasn’t going to happen to her on Senior Day, with Bhat serving it out for a 6-3, 7-5 win, and a 4-3 win for New Mexico. The Lobos, owners of a four-match winning streak, now head on the road for the final two weekends of the season. UNM will play at Wyoming at 5 p.n. on Friday night in Laramie before heading to Ft. Collins for an Easter Sunday morning showdown (10 a.m.) with Colorado State.
NOTES: Bhat is now three wins away from Iva Gersic’s 92, which is good for sixth in UNM singles history … Of Diana Wong’s last eight sets won, six have been 6-0 or 6-1 … Dulski’s four-match winning streak ended … Bhat has now won four in a row … after losing six straight Chung has won two of her last three, the only loss a third set retirement.