ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The second-seeded University of New Mexico women’s tennis team rallied past third-seeded San Jose State 4-3 in the semifinals of the Mountain West Championships on Saturday afternoon, allowing the Lobos to earn a spot in the final match of the tournament for the second year in a row.
It was a battle between No. 2 seed/61st ranked UNM and No. 3 seed/62nd ranked San Jose State. Needless to say, it was a tight match up as the two teams duked it out for an opportunity to advance to the MW championship match. It took some singles rallying and a lot of determination from the UNM lineup, but eventually the Lobos came out on top.
UNM, who has lost the doubles point in its last eight matches, went into doubles play full force ahead and swiftly tallied victories in the No. 1 and No. 2 positions. Emily Olivier and Sharon Coone defeated Sybille Gauvain and Malin Cubukcu 6-3 in No. 2 doubles while Natasha Smith and Dominique Dulski clinched the point with a 6-3 win over Marie Klocker and Gaelle Rey in the No. 1 spot. Susie Baklini and Rachana Bhat were tied at 4-all with SJSU’s Julianna Bacelar and Abbie Pahz in the No. 3 position.
However singles didn’t go quite as smoothly as the Lobos got off to a slow start and dropped the first set in five of the six singles matches. The Spartans took advantage of the Lobos’ rocky start and claimed three quick singles victories to jump out to a 3-1 lead. Bhat dropped an early 6-1, 6-1 match to Cubukcu in the No. 5 position. Olivier fell to Gauvain 6-2, 6-3 in the No. 1 spot. Meredith Hopson fell in two sets to Rey in the No. 3 spot; 7-5, 6-0.
Luckily head coach Erica Jasper has a team full of fighters and each of the remaining Lobos battled back game-by-game to keep UNM in the match. Smith dropped her first set 3-6 to Klocker in the No. 1 position, but rallied back and claimed the next two sets 6-3, 6-2. Dulski claimed her first set against Bacelar in the No. 4 spot, dropped her next set, 3-6, and then fought back to claim the third set 6-1, handing UNM its third point of the night.
The match came down to Coone’s No. 6 singles battle against Pahz. Coone, who dropped her first 3-6, also had to switch into rally mode in order to give the Lobos a chance at advancing in the tournament. The UNM freshman responded to the situation well and claimed her next two sets 6-1, 6-1, clinching the semifinals victory for the Lobos.
The No. 61 Lobos, last year’s MW championships runner-up, will face fifth-seeded Wyoming in the championship match on Sunday at 2 p.m. MT. Wyoming earned a spot in the final match after defeating top-seeded Fresno State in a 4-3 lengthy four-hour battle on Saturday. The location of the Lobos’ match against Wyoming will be determined by the weather conditions on Sunday morning.
UNM is now 15-9 on the season and 6-2 against conference opponents.
Notes: UNM dropped a tight 4-3 match to the Cowgirls on the road earlier this month. New Mexico has never won a conference title in women’s tennis. This is Wyoming’s first appearance in the MW Women’s Tennis Championship final match. The Lobos fell to Fresno State in the MW Championship match last season in Fresno, Calif.
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COMPLETE RESULTS:
Doubles:
1) Duslki/Smith (UNM) def. Klocker/Rey (SJSU), 6-4
2) Olivier/Coone (UNM) def. Gauvain/Cubukcu (SJSU), 6-4
3) Bhat/Baklini (UNM) vs. Bacelar/Pahz (SJSU), 4-4 unfinished
Order of Finish: (2, 1)
Singles:
1) Gauvain (SJSU) def. Olivier (UNM), 6-2, 6-3
2) Smith (UNM) def. Klocker (SJSU), 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
3) Rey (SJSU) def. Hopson (UNM) , 7-5, 6-0
4) Dulski (UNM) def. Bacelar (SJSU), 6-0, 3-6,
5) Cubukcu (SJSU) def. Bhat (UNM), 6-1, 6-1
6) Coone (UNM) def. Pahz (SJSU), 3-6, 6-1,
Order of Finish: (5, 1, 3, 2, 4, 6)