Escutia clinches another 4-3 win
In another exciting match that came down to the last point, the Lobos of the University of New Mexico men’s tennis team (14-10, MW: 3-3), have defeated the Pioneers of Denver University (10-9) by a score of 4-3.
In double’s play, the Denver duo of Eric Morris and Pedro Fernandez Del Valle bested Lobos Ricky Hernandez-Tong and Stepan Holis in the second flight, winning 6-3. Fortunately, the Lobos were able to pull together two wins in the following set, with Dominic West and Sean Baklini winning 6-4 over Mattia Ros and Wyatt Lovera in the third flight, followed immediately by a 7-6 win by first flight Bart Van Leijsen and Jorge Escutia over Matt Summers and Jesse Ruder-Hook, earning the double’s point for the Lobos.
Single’s play started out strong, with an impressive 6-0, 6-4 victory by Holis in the fifth flight over Morris. This was followed by a loss in flight 2 by Van Leijsen, who fell to Summers of the Pioneers by a score of 3-6, 6-3, 3-6. Luckily, Baklini was able to bag another win for the Lobos, topping Sean Huynh in flight six , 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.
This was followed by yet another three-set loss as Hernandez-Tong was unable to beat Ros in the tiebreaker, falling 6-4, 4-6, 6-7, tying the teams up with just the fourth flight match of Escutia and Fernandez Del Valle left to play. In an nail-biting tiebreaker, Jorg Escutia came back to clinch the match for the Lobos, winning 3-6, 7-6, 7-6, putting the Lobos up 4-3 for the day.
“I’m so proud of this group’s effort,” Head Coach Ben Dunbar said. “It wasn’t pretty, but we won because the guys fought until the very end. It was a great college tennis match. We cannot wait to recognize these three seniors who have meant so much to the program the last four years. They are great people and I hope we get a huge crowd to see them off as they deserve. Go Lobos!”
The Lobos are back in action tomorrow, April 21, at 1 P.M. following the women’s match as they take on the Falcons of Air Force for their final regular season and conference matchup of the season, before going into Mountain West Tournament play on April 26.