COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Once again, the New Mexico Lobos found themselves on the wrong end of a 3-2 deficit. Once again, they basically said “deficit schmeficit”. Down 3-2 and down a set in both final matches, Rachana Bhat and Cassie Chung both roared back, with Chung of the miraculous variety, to defeat Air Force and give UNM all sorts of momentum heading into the conference tournament.
The loss dropped Air Force to 16-9, and while UNM improved to just 7-13 on the season, the Lobos are now 4-1 in the Mountain West and have won six of their last eight, making them on of the league’s hottest teams entering the tournament, with a good chance of a potential top-5 seed, which would mean avoiding an opening round match.
But that’s next week. On a resplendent Earth Day, UNM once again fell into an early hole on the doubles point. UNM split the first two doubles matches with Emily Olivier and Diana Wong winning 6-3 at No. 2 to tie it up, but Air Force won 6-4 at No. 1 to take a 1-0 lead. That lead was pushed to 2-0 when Ruth Copas lost to TJ Fumagalli 6-3, 6-0.
UNM got one back to make it 2-1 when Dominique Dulski, moving down a slot to No. 4 singles, worked a tough 7-5, 6-3 win. The win for Dulski was her first of the season at No. 4, and she had to earn it, coming back from down 4-0 in the first set. Dulski moved down because Diana Wong has been unbeatable for over two months. Moving from No. 5 to No. 4 and then up to No. 3 for the first time in her career, she took down Elizabeth Barnickel 6-4, 6-3 for her 10th consecutive win. Wong also was down 3-0 in the opening set before winning 12 of the final 16 games.
With the match tied at 2-2, Air Force took a 3-2 lead with a 6-1, 7-5 win at No. 1 as Chloe Forlini beat Ludivene Burguiere. That left it to Bhat and Chung, who also had to deal with the luck of starting well after everyone else because there were only four courts available. Bhat and Chung both lost their opening sets, Bhat going down 6-1 to Lily Forlini and Chung 6-2 to Jocelle Rudico. That put the pressure on, but that was of zero consequence.
Bhat’s match finished first to tie things at 3-3 in the match. Bhat won the second set in a tiebreaker 7-3, and then picked up career win No. 91 with a 6-4 closing set. That meant all eyes were on No. 6 singles, and Chung several times was in a bad position with Rudico’s proverbal foot on her throat. But in the vein of a Creed/Balboa title fight, Chung flipped the script, turned the match on its head and pulled of a heck of a comeback.
Rudico had a 6-1, 5-3 lead on Chung, needing a break of a simple hold of serve to give Air Force the win. Chung said no. Cassie got the break instead, knotted the set at 5-5, and eventually it went to a tiebreaker at 6-6. Chung dominated that tiebreaker for a 7-1 win, which should have given her the momentum. That also didn’t happen.
Rudico blitzed out to a 3-0 lead in the third, but Chung came right back, fighting back to even it up at 3-3. After tying it, Rudico bolted back to take a 4-3 lead. Then Chung fought back and got a hold and a break and suddenly the match was in her hands at 5-4. Rudico tied it at 5-5, Chung got the lead again, and then won the 12th game, giving her an exhausting 2-6, 7-6 (7-1), 7-5 win, and giving UNM a second straight conference road win and a 4-1 conference mark.
UNM now awaits seeding to find out its opponent in the Mountain West Championships, which will be held in Las Vegas on the campus on UNLV Thursday through Sunday, April 27-30.
NOTE: Chung improved to 4-2 in singles at No. 6 … Dulski is now 67-41 all-time in singles play … Bhat has 91 singles wins, one away from tying for seventh in UNM history … Wong leads the team with a 14-5 singles mark in 2016-17.
Comeback Queens Do It Again! Down AF 4-3
