April 21, 2012
2012 MW Tennis Championships Central
NEW MEXICO TO PLAY SAN DIEGO STATE IN MOUNTAIN WEST CHAMPIONSHIPS
The New Mexico Lobos women’s tennis team will be bucking the odds at the Mountain West Championships that begin Thursday. First, the Lobos have to beat a San Diego State team that shut out UNM 7-0 during the regular season. Second, the Lobos will have to turn that upset on the Aztecs’ home courts.
The tournament will be played at the Aztec Tennis Center Thurday, Saturday and Sunday. The No. 6 seed Lobos will play the No. 3 seed Aztecs at 3 p.m. (MT) on Thursday.
SDSU finished the MW regular season in a three-way tie with UNLV and Wyoming for second place — all teams at 5-2 in league play. The Lady Rebels got the No. 2 seed with a win over SDSU and the Aztecs got the No. 3 seed with its win over Wyoming. TCU, the MW regular-season champion, got the No. 1 seed.
SDSU got its 7-0 win over the Lobos in Las Vegas taking all three doubles matches and winning all six singles matches in straight sets.
http://www.golobos.com/sports/w-tennis/stats/2011-2012/teamcume.html
LAS CRUCES, N.M.–Since the Lobos fell today 5-2 to the Aggies, this puts the Rio Grande Rivalry scoreboard to 14.25 for UNM and NMSU at 13.5 for the year so far. This leaves only the May 15, 2012 baseball game to determine if UNM will take home the trophy or if NMSU will, for the first time in history, force a tie.
The Lobos knew of the importance of the match as they traveled to Las Cruces to take on their opponents. The scores throughout the entire match reflect how hard the Lobos fought against NMSU.
At number one doubles, the duo of Maria Sablina and Michaela Bezdickova fought long and hard pushing the match to its limits but fell 9-7 to Salum/Sylvain.
At number two doubles, Kristin Eggleston and Michaela Oldani took on Williams/Witte but was defeated with a score of 8-4.
At number three doubles, Nikolina Grbac and Alyssa Caffey came out on top winning the match in a tiebreak against Pinero/Nguyen with a score of 9-8 (7-1).
The Lobos took that same fire and energy into singles in the hopes of shifting the momentum in their favor.
At number one singles, Michaela Bezdickova showed that nothing is impossible as she defeated Manon Sylvain after dropping the first set 6-0. Bezdickova had a close second set, but sealed the match in the third as she won with a score of 0-6, 6-4, 6-2.
At number two singles, Maria Sablina was defeated by Denise Van Der Ben with a score of 6-4, 6-2.
Alyssa Caffey fought a close first set but was no match against Ginet Pinero at the number three spot. Pinero took the set 7-5, 6-3.
At the number four spot, Kristin Eggleston fell to Natalia Salum with a score of 6-2, 6-3.
Michaela Oldani was defeated by Annemieke Witte at the number five position with a score of 6-2, 6-2.
At number six singles, Nikolina Grbac faced an equally matched opponent, Ros-Polly Nguyen taking the match to three sets. Nikolina Grbac dropped the first set 6-4, but came back winning the second with the same score of 6-4. She kept that intensity up winning the tiebreak by three points in the third finishing with a final score of 4-6, 6-4, 10-7.
“We had our chances to win the doubles point and that point is what sets the tone for the match,” Head Coach Roy Canada said. “NMSU played with a lot of passion for their senior. It is now on to the Conference Tournament and single elimination from now on.”
Dropping the match was a heartbreaker for UNM and it is certainly not ideal leading into the Mountain West Tournament but this is something that the Lobos will have to overcome as they gear up for the tournament coming up in San Diego, Calif. on April 26-29, 2012.