Lobos finish third in Mountain Pacific Invitational
The University of New Mexico’s men’s tennis team (8-5) finished the Mountain Pacific Invitational in third place after two days of tournament play.
On the first day of play, the Lobos took on the Rainbow Warriors of Hawai’I (0-7), in a match that only included singles play. The match started with an impressive, 6-2, 6-3 win by Bart Van Leijsen over Hawai’i’s Felix Albert in the second flight, which was followed by a 6-2, 6-1 win for Dominic West in the third flight over the Rainbow Warriors’ Lucas Labrunie.
After a win by Lobo Sean Baklini in the sixth flight, 7-5, 6-3, over Fabian Woerhrl in the sixth flight, first flight Lobo Ricky Hernandez-Tong was able to clinch the win for the Lobos over Blaz Seric with a score of 6-4, 6-4, with a final score of 4-0.
In the second match of the day, which also only included singles, the Lobos faced off against the Shockers of Wichita State (5-5). The match started with a loss on the second court by Van Leijsen by a score of 6-7 3-6 against Wichita State’s Marius Frosa. This was followed by another two-set loss in the fifth flight by Stepan Holis, who fell to Eddie Stoica of the Shockers by a score of 6-7, 3-6.
Baklini in fight 6 was able to avoid the sweep with a win on court six, with a final score of 7-6, 7-6 against Wichita State’s Andrea Caligiana. Unfortunately for the Lobos, this was followed by a loss in the fourth flight by Jorge Escutia against Wichita State’s Miroslav Herzan by a score of 6-2, 5-7, 5-7 as well as another loss by Hernandez-Tong against Haru Inoue of the Shockers by a score of 6-4, 3-6, 5-7 to end the day with a 4-1 Shocker victory, sending the Lobos to the third place match against Brown for the following day of play.
The third place match against Brown (11-4) started with a pair of losses suffered by Hernandez-Tong and West by Ching Lam and Aaron Sandberg in flight two with a score of 3-6, and Van Leijsen and Escutia in flight one by a score of 4-6 against Jack Haworth and Jacob Walker to put the Bears up 1-0 as the teams moved onto singles play.
In single’s play, Van Leijsen earned the first point for the Lobos as he earned a 6-2, 6-3 victory of the Bear’s Walker. This was followed by two more two-set wins for the Lobos, with Balkini winning on court six against Sandberg by a score of 6-3, 6-3 and Hernandez-Tong besting Brown’s Haworth in flight one with a score of 7-5, 6-3, putting the Lobos ahead for the match by a score of 3-1.
Following an exciting couple of sets that came down to a tiebreaker, Holis was able to clinch the match for the Lobos with a 6-3, 7-6 win over Charles Tan, finishing the match with a 4-1 victory and finishing the invitational with a third place finish.
“It was a fun weekend of tennis,” Head Coach Ben Dunbar said. “We are learning from every match, and I feel like today was a step forward, with losing the double’s point but working back and being dominant in singles. Thank to teams for coming this weekend. It was a great tournament.
The Lobos are back in action for a weekend of matches in Wichita, Kansas, starting with a matchup against Nebraska at noon on Saturday, March 10, and a rematch against Wichita State on Sunday, March 11 at 11 am.