TUCSON, Ariz. – The University of New Mexico men’s tennis team is heading home from the ITA Kick-Off event with an impressive 4-2 record.
The sixty-first ranked Lobos closed out the final day of action in Tucson with one loss and one victory.
No. 61 New Mexico vs Arizona
UNM started out the last day with a loss to host school Arizona after a tight battle.
The Wildcats earned their first point of the match with Jason Jaruvang’s 6-2, 6-3 victory over UNM freshman Bart Van Leijsen. Augustus Ge responded with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Trevor James to put the Lobos on board, but U of A quickly regained the lead with a win in the number one position as Mitchell McDaniels fell to Sumeet Shinde, 6-3, 6-1.
James Hignett and Rodolfo Jauregui both fought through three sets before they dropped their matches. Hignett lost the first set to Shoki Kasahara in the number five spot, but responded with a win in the second to stay alive. Hignett and Kasahara duked it out in a tiebreaker for the third set, but the Wildcat competitor eventually claimed the match, 6-0, 6-7, 7-6.
Jauregui and David Mushayev also battled through three tough sets, but Mushayev eventually won 7-6, 3-6, 6-3 to claim the match for the Wildcats, 4-1.
Hayden Sabatka squared off against Naoki Takeda in the number two spot, but their match went unfinished.
“Tough loss,” interim head coach Bart Scott said. “We got off to a slow start on a few courts. We managed to manufacture some opportunities, but couldn’t find a way to execute consistently enough. Credit to Arizona for fighting start to finish.”
No. 61 New Mexico vs UC Irvine
The Lobos closed out the day with a 4-1 win over the UC Irvine Anteaters.
Sabatka, Van Leijsen, Ge, and freshman Jorge Escutia each contributed to the Lobos’ victory. Sabatka defeated Sebastian Heim in three sets, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2; Van Leijsen defeated Tyler Pham after a lengthy match, 7-5, 5-7, 7-6; Ge, who went 3-0 on the weekend, defeated Jonathan Hammel, 6-3, 6-3; and Escutia defeated Jonathan Poon, 6-1, 6-4.
Hignett dropped a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 match to Shuheii Shibahara. McDaniels faced Nico Mertens in the number one spot, but their match went unfinished.
“It was a tough weekend, but we battled through and grew up a bit as a team,” Scott added. “It was a tough break to lose Sam (Iftikhar) in the second match against Arizona, but the guys responded well. We will have to continue to improve as the road ahead only gets tougher.”
After tallying an upset victory over No. 41 Texas Tech on Friday morning, the Lobos had to compete the rest of the weekend without senior and team co-captain Samir Iftikhar (ranked No. 41 nationally) who broke his wrist in UNM’s second match on Friday against Arizona. He is expected to return in five to eight weeks.
“It was such a long weekend with six matches,” Scott said. “It’s hard to highlight any individual efforts. It was great to see Augie (Ge), Bart (Van Leijsen), and Jorge (Escutia) all pick up wins, and it was nice to see plenty of veteran leadership as well.”
The Lobos head to the University of Oklahoma next weekend for another ITA Kick-Off event where they will square off against OU (ranked second in the nation) on Friday Jan. 23 and then either No. 34 Northwestern or No. 57 Arkansas on Saturday Jan. 24.
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UNM VS ARIZONA BOX SCORE (MATCH #2)