FT. COLLINS, Colo. — Head coach Stephanie Wooten-Quijada was about as happy after doubles as a kid who got a coupon for the dentist office in their Easter Basket. She wasn’t happy and politely informed her team to step it up in singles and win the match.
Done, and done.
Down 1-0 after doubles, UNM once against dominated the bottom of the lineup and got a clinching win from Diana Wong as New Mexico fought back from down 1-0 and 3-2 to claim a 4-3 win over Colorado State. The win was the first true road win of the season for the team and it improved UNM to 6-12 overall and 3-1 in the conference. The Lobos have now won five of their last six.
It didn’t look like that would happen after a disappointing doubles portion in which UNM went down in both No. 1 and No. 2 doubles to trail 1-0. That brought a talking to from Wooten-Quijada.
“I just wasn’t happy with how they were playing, and told them they needed to pick it up,” she said. “Our singles play was more like we are capable of playing.”
The Lobos and the Rams (11-9, 0-5 MW) split the opening six sets of singles, which wouldn’t work in the long run for UNM. Cassie Chung, who won her opening set, finished off Madison Porter at No. 6 handily, winning 6-3, 6-1 and the match was tied 1-1. Ludivine Burguiere, who is looking more and more like herself, won 6-2, 7-5 at No. 1 singles, her second straight win, giving UNM a 2-1 lead, but that didn’t last.
Alyssa Grijalva and Riley Reed won at No. 2 and No. 3 singles to give CSU the lead at 3-2. Grijalva beat Ruth Copas 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) to tie the match, and then Dulski lost in an epic battle, going down 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (9-7). That left it to the bottom of UNM’s order in Rachana Bhat and Diana Wong. Fortunately, that’s exactly who any Lobo fan would want to muster a comeback.
Bhat and Wong both lost their opening sets, each needing to win in three. Bhat was the first to do so, coming back for a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 win. Wong nearly won her opening set, a rollicking affair that saw both her and Celine Voss miss set point opportunities before Voss finally prevailed 12-10 in the tiebreaker. The rest belonged to Wong.
Diana won the second set 6-3 and then went up 5-2 before allowing a break to Voss that eventually pushed it to 5-4. Wong served it out and clinched the match with her ninth straight win, giving UNM the 4-3 win.
New Mexico has one final weekend left before the Mountain West Tournament in Las Vegas. The Lobos will face off with No. 6 Texas Tech on Thursday at 2 p.m. in Lubbock before the regular season finale in Colorado Springs against Air Force on Saturday, April 22 at 10 a.m.
NOTES: Wong’s nine-match winning streak dates back to February 17 … Bhat improved to a team-best 16-5 … UNM improved to 22-5 in its last 27 matches in the month of April.
Lobos Complete Comeback, Down CSU 4-3
