NORMAN, Okla. – The No. 56 ranked University of New Mexico men’s tennis team put up an impressive fight against the second-ranked Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday afternoon, but couldn’t pull off the upset.
“Tough match,” interim head coach Bart Scott said. “Credit to Oklahoma and the program they’ve put together. They played the big points with more poise than we did and deserved the win today. I thought our guys played with a lot of heart and toughness. We had a very specific game plan and our boys were very professional in trying to execute it. I’m really proud of them.”
The fourth-seeded Lobos went into the ITA Kickoff event full force ahead as they squared off against the top-seeded and host school in their first match up of the weekend.
UNM held its own in doubles action and certainly made the Sooners work for their first point of the match. Hayden Sabatka and Rodolfo Jauregui battled Andrew Harris and Spencer Papa in the No. 2 spot where the Lobos fell 6-3. James Hignett and Bart Van Leijsen teamed up to take on No. 38 ranked Axel Alvarez and Dane Webb in the No. 1 spot where they fell to the OU doubles team 6-4 allowing the Sooners to claim the doubles point.
Freshmen Augustus Ge and Jorge Escutia were in the midst of a tight battle with Alex Ghilea and Florin Bragusi when their match in the No. 3 match was declared unfinished.
In singles play, the Lobos had to face an OU lineup featuring four different ITA ranked singles players. McDaniels played the number one position for UNM where he dropped a 6-0, 6-4 match to (No. 20) Harris. Sabatka faced fourteenth-ranked Alvarez in the No. 2 position. The UNM sophomore dropped the first set 6-1, but hung around in the second set. Sabatka eventually fell 6-1, 7-6 allowing the Sooners to take the 3-0 lead. Hignett also gave an impressive showing his match against Jose Salazar in the number five spot. However, the OU opponent powered through to claim the match 7-5, 6-1 victory and won the match for the Sooners.
Van Leijsen battled (No. 33) Webb in the No. 3 spot for UNM. The score sat at a tight 3-6, 5-5 when the match was called off. Jauregui was also in a close battle when OU clinched the match (6-4, 3-2 against No. 50 Ghilea). Ge was down 4-6, 3-5 against Bragusi in the No. 6 spot.
“Mitch (McDaniels) was fighting back against a great player, James (Hignett) was up 5-3 in the first playing great offensive tennis,” Scott said. “Bart (Van Leijsen) was hanging in there not playing his best. Hayden (Sabatka) served for the second at 5-3, and Rodolfo (Jauregui) was poised and confident from start to finish up a set and a break. All of this was without our best player.”
The Lobos will face No. 58 Arkansas in a consolation match on Sunday at 10 a.m. CT.
“We have another great match lined up with the SEC’s Arkansas,” Scott added. “We’re excited for the next challenge.”