LARAMIE, Wyo. — It took a little over three and a half hours from start to finish, but UNM saw its winning streak end at four as Wyoming defeated the Lobos 4-2 in a battle of unbeaten conference teams. The margin was razor thin, as UNM’s loss of the doubles point on a tiebreaker proved costly.
The Lobos dropped to 2-1 in the conference and 5-12 overall, while Wyoming is now 3-0 in the league and 15-3 overall, having won 12 of 13. However, it was a tight match throughout that really turned early with Wyoming netting itself the doubles point.
Emily Olivier and Diana Wong picked up one of the two doubles wins needed with a 6-4 win at No. 2 doubles over Dorottya Jonas and Ana Tkachenko. After Ludivine Burguiere and Cassie Chung dropped a 6-4 decision at No. 3 to Magdelena Stencel and Milka Genkova, meaning that eventually critical point would come down to No. 1 doubles. Rachana Bhat and Dominique Dulski battled back twice, from 5-4 and 6-5 to force a tiebreaker.
In the tiebreaker, Wyoming picked up two mini breaks early to go up 3-0, and after UNM got a point back on a mini to make it 3-1, Wyoming pushed it to 4-1, and then broke UNM’s serve twice again, making it 6-1. Bhat and Dulski then won three straight points to make it 6-4 before losing 7-4.
With just four courts available, UNM went down 2-0 when Tessa van Der Ploeg defeated Dulski at No. 3 singles 6-4, 6-1, but Wong picked up another win, her eighth straight, winning 6-3, 6-3 over Elisa Koonik at No. 4 singles. Wyooming then went back up by two 3-1 with a 6-1, 6-4 win at No. 2 singles as Jonas defeated Copas.
Needing to win the final three matches, Burguiere got the comeback started with a tense 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 win to make it 3-2. However, UNM fell in defeat when Tkachenko defeated Chung 6-1, 6-2 at No. 6 singles.
That doubles point proved the potential different as Rachana Bhat was winning her match at No. 5 singles.
The loss ended UNM’s winning streak at four straight, but the match showed that there is negligible different at the top of the league. UNM now heads to Colorado State for an Easter Sunday match that will start at 10 a.m. Fans can follow along online at http://www.csurams.com/library/tennisstats.html. Colorado State lost 5-2 to Air Force on Friday afternoon.
Streak Ends at Four, Lobos Fall 4-2 to Wyoming
