Lobos Nearly Complete Comeback, Lose 4-3 at USU
LOGAN, Utah — In a marathon match that took over four hours, Lauren Rich forced a third set against Hannah Jones at No. 5 singles but fell 6-3, 6-7, 1-6 as New Mexico nearly pulled off a stunning comeback, losing to Utah State 4-3 in Logan, dropping to 9-9 on the year and 2-2 in the Mountain West.
The Lobos conclude the regular season on Saturday at McKinnon Family Tennis Stadium against Air Force at 10 a.m.
Utah State opened the match with the doubles point, as all three doubles matches were tight throughout, Danielle Quevedo and Hsiang-Wen “Albie” Wong won their match in a tiebreaker, but Utah State took both the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles matches 6-4 to go up 1-0.
From there, it was a long, back-and-fourth affair that took over four hours, and saw UNM fight back from a 3-0 deficit. The Lobos went down 3-0 when Maggie O’Meara defeated Yue-Lin “Polly” Chen 6-4, 6-3 at No. 3 singles and Sasha Pisareva won at No. 1 singles over Diana Wong 6-4, 6-4.
However, UNM took the next three matches, some in improbable fashion. First, Huang won at No. 6 over Sophia Haleas 6-2, 6-2 to cut the lead to 3-1. Her doubles partner Quevedo then made it 3-2, winning at No. 4 singles 7-5, 6-4 over Rhoda Tanui.
Still it looked done there as Bronte Murgett at No. 2 singles lost the opening set 6-3, bounced back with a 6-4 win in the second but trailed 5-4 in the third. Digging deep she forced and won a tiebreaker 7-6 to even the match at 3-3.
While that tiebreaker in the third set was going on, Lauren Rich was in a tiebreaker in the second set just to force a third, which she did. Rich couldn’t complete it though, losing 3-6, 6-7, 6-1.