LUBBOCK, TEXAS— In a hard fought battle that came down to the final match, the University of New Mexico’s men’s tennis team (1-1) fell to 25th ranked Texas Tech University (9-1) in their second day of play at The Falls Athletic Club in Lubbock, Texas with a final score of 4-3.
In doubles play, Bart Van Leijsen and Stepan Holis of UNM were defeated by Connor Curry and Alex Sendegeya of Texas Tech with a score of 3-6, while the Lobos double duo of Ricky Hernandez-Tong and Dominic West were just edged out by the Red Raider duo of Artem Kapshuk and Ilgiz Valiev with a final score of 6-7.
In the singles matches, the Lobos came out strong with a two-set win in the No. 2 singles flight by Van Leijsen over Texas Tech’s Sendegeya with a score of 6-3, 6-3. This was followed by back-to-back losses for the Lobos, with West falling to Valiev, 6-4, 6-4 for the No. 3 singles flight, and UNM’s Jorge Escutia falling to Tech’s Kapshuk with a score of 6-2, 7-5 in the No. 4 singles flight.
The Lobos were then able to shift the momentum with a back-to-back win response. In the No. 1 singles flight, Hernandez-Tong was beat by Curry in the first set, 3-6, but was able to come back and win the next two sets, 6-4, 6-3, to clinch the victory for UNM. This was followed by a two-set win in the No. 6 singles flight by Holis, fininishing the match with a 6-1, 6-1 over Tech’s Pyry Hyrkkonen, tying the Lobos and Raiders for the day.
In the final match of the day, Lobo Tim Buttner just fell to Tech’s Matheus Leite with a final score of 6-3, 7-6, making the final score of the day 4-3, with a Texas Tech victory.
“I’m proud of the fight of our team today,” Head Coach Ben Dunbar said. ” We can take a lot of positives from this loss, but it still stings. Credit goes to Texas Tech. They fought with us and came out on top in a great match. We know there are areas we need to improve, and we are exited to work on them this week. We play our home opener versus NAU on Saturday. We hope to see everyone there.”
The Lobos will return to the Linda Estes Tennis Center in Albuquerque on Jan. 27 for a matchup against the Lumberjacks of Northern Arizona at 1 p.m. in their first regular season match at home.