ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The No. 45 University of New Mexico men’s tennis team closed out its regular season at home with an impressive 4-2 victory over the No. 37 San Diego State Aztecs on Sunday afternoon at the McKinnon Family Tennis Stadium.
It was a big match for the Lobos and they certainly played like it. UNM was wrapping up the regular season at home, which meant it was Senior Day for three Lobos who have made an incredible impact on the Lobo tennis program, James Hignett, Samir Iftikhar, and Mitchell McDaniels. And on top of that, the Lobos had to face the Aztecs who are the highest ranked MW team in the ITA rankings and also sit a spot above the Lobos in the MW standings.
Needless to say, the Lobos were hungry for a victory.
UNM went into doubles with high energy and took the first point of the match after picking up wins in the No. 1 and No. 3 doubles positions. Each doubles match was pretty tight throughout, but the Lobos always managed to maintain a slight lead. Hayden Sabatka and Bart Van Leijsen posted a 6-4 win over Freddy Gelbrich and Hendrik Jebens in the No. 1 position to get the Lobos started. Senior duo Iftikhar and McDaniels clinched the point with their 6-4 win over Andrani Khachatryan and Marko Goles-Babic in the No. 3 position.
Hignett and Augie Ge were up 5-4 over Thorsten Bertsch and Jonas Meinzer in the No. 2 spot when the point was claimed.
Singles play was also tight throughout. The Aztecs first got on board with a win in the No. 5 spot as Hignett fell to Milen Ianakiev 6-1, 6-3.
Sabatka posted a 7-5, 6-4 win over Gelbrich in the No. 1 position to put the Lobos ahead again. Van Leijsen continued UNM’s success with his 6-3, 7-6 win over Goles-Babic in the No. 4 spot.
The score moved to 3-2 as Iftikhar fell to Jebens 6-2, 6-4 in the No. 2 singles spot.
The Lobos had to pick up a win from either Ge in the No. 6 spot or McDaniels in the No. 3 position. Both matches went into a third set, but McDaniels eventually pulled ahead to defeat Bertsch 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 to clinch the Senior Day win for the Lobos.
“It was so great that Mitch (McDaniels) came through and clinched it on Senior Day,” interim head coach Bart Scott said. “The best way to honor the seniors is to have everyone come out and play hard, so it was a nice team win. We have a lot of respect for SDSU and they always give us a good match.”
Ge led Meinzer 4-2 in the third set when the match was claimed.
“It was another great atmosphere out there today,” Scott said. “It was awesome to see so many Lobo fans out there supporting on Senior Day.”
UNM is now 17-9 on the season and 5-1 in MW action.
The Lobos hit the road next weekend for a non-conference match against Denver on Friday and UNM’s final regular season conference match against Air Force on Saturday. The upcoming weekend is critical for the Lobos as it is the final weekend of action before the Mountain West Conference Championships, which the Lobos are hosting on their home turf (April 23-26).
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