ALBUQUERUQUE, N.M. – After a successful first day of singles action at the 2014 USTA/ITA Mountain Regional Championships, the Lobos have six players advancing to the round of 32 in the singles draw being played on Thursday, Oct. 16 at the Darling Tennis Center in Las Vegas, Nev.
The University of New Mexico men’s tennis team opened singles play with two losses as redshirt freshmen Sean Baklini (No. 25 seed) and Shunji Hirooka both dropped their matches in the first round of the 128-player draw. Baklini lost a tight three-set match to Idaho’s Jackson Varney. Baklini won the first set 6-1, but Varney pulled ahead and tallied wins in the next two sets, 7-6, 6-2. Hirooka fell to No. 25 seed Aidan Talcott of Denver, 6-0, 6-2.
However, after claiming two losses the Lobos quickly turned things around and tallied a total of eight singles victories to finish the day.
Twenty-fifth-seeded Mitchell McDaniels and James Hignett found success in the round of 128 and were able to pick up wins. McDaniels defeated BYU’s David Ball, 4-6, 6-0, 6-1. Hignett earned a 6-2, 7-5 win over Northern Colorado’s Jordan Loughnan.
McDaniel’s and Hignett’s first round victories allowed them to advance to the round of 64 where they joined teammates Samir Iftikhar (No. 2 seed), Hayden Sabatka (No. 6), Rodolfo Jauregui (No. 16), and Bart Van Leijsen (No. 19), who all had a bye for the first round.
“We had a slow start to the day, but we regrouped and finished strong,” head coach Bart Scott said. “The balls were flying on us a bit with the heat in the mid 80’s. We weren’t as tough mentally as we could have been in some areas, but as the day wore on we sort of sunk our teeth into the tournament.”
The Lobos dominated in the round of 64 as each UNM competitor picked up a win. Iftikhar claimed a quick 6-3, 6-2 win over Utah State’s Jack Swindells. Freshman Van Leijsen also earned a 6-3, 6-2 win over a USU opponent as he defeated Jaime Barajas in his first match of the tournament. Sabatka beat Nevada’s Peter O’Donovan, 6-1, 6-3. Jauregui defeated AFA’s Andrew Parks, 0-6, 6-2, 6-3. McDaniels and Hignett moved both to 2-0 on the day with second round wins. McDaniels moved past Utah’s Louis-Philippe Gascon, 6-1, 6-4. Hignett took down Sanjay Goswami of Weber State, 6-0, 6-3.
“I’m proud of Fito for fighting hard and working his way through a tough match against Air Force where he got blanked in the first set,” Scott added. We will have to work harder and play smarter if we want to advance tomorrow, but I’m confident that we can.”
The Lobos went 0-1 in singles play. McDaniels and Hirooka dropped an 8-5 match to Montana State’s Niklas Brandes and Harry James. UNM also had three doubles pairs receive a bye for the first round of doubles. Iftikhar/Baklini, Hignett/Van Leijsen, and Sabatka/Jauregui will all compete in the round of 32 for doubles on Thursday.