ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The No. 45 University of New Mexico men’s tennis team tallied a dominating 4-0 victory over No. 39 Penn on Tuesday afternoon at the McKinnon Family Tennis Stadium allowing the Lobos to remain undefeated at home. UNM is now 11-7 on the season and 4-0 on its home turf.
“It was a good team win today against an experienced and well –coached team,” interim head coach Bart Scott said. “To come out and win 4-0 not playing our best tennis is very impressive and all the credit goes to the guys.”
Doubles play started off with a quick victory from each team. Hayden Sabatka and Bart Van Leijsen posted a swift 6-1 win over Penn’s Jeremy Court and Nicholai Westergaard in the No. 1 spot while Rodolfo Jauregui and Jorge Escuita fell to Matt Nardella and Marshall Sharp in the No. 2 spot 6-0. Meanwhile, James Hignett and Augustus Ge were battling in the No. 3 spot against Austin Kaplan and Blaine Willenberg. The match was decided in a tiebreaker where Hignett and Ge eventually won 7-6 (3) clinching the point for the Lobos.
Escutia got the Lobos started in singles play. He was the first off the court as he posted a 6-2, 6-3 win over Sharp in the No. 6 position. Two veteran Lobos stepped up to close out the victory for UNM. Hignett claimed a 6-3, 6-2 win over Nardella in the No. 5 position while Iftikhar defeated Vim De Alwis 6-3, 6-1 in the No. 1 spot.
Sabatka, McDaniels, and Jauregui also battled in singles, but their matches were declared unfinished.
“We’ve had to learn some tough lessons this season through some hard losses, so it feels good to finally get over that hump,” Scott added.
New ITA Rankings
The newest ITA rankings were also released today and the Lobos remain at No. 45 in the team listings for the third straight week. Senior Samir Iftikhar comes in at No. 62 in the singles rankings. Hayden Sabatka and Bart Van Leijsen cracked the doubles ranking for the first time in their career coming in at No. 67.
UNM hits the road this weekend for a pair of matches against regional opponents Utah and BYU.