Lobos fall in Santa Clara

SANTA CLARA, CALIF.— After a run of successful road matches for the University of New Mexico’s men’s tennis team, the Lobos (5-3) have been beat by the Brocos of Santa Clara University (5-2) by a score of 1-6.
 
In double’s play, the first flight of Bart Van Leijsen and Stepan Holis were beat by Santa Clara’s Andrew Gu and Robert Seby by a score of 6-1. This was followed by a third flight victory for the Lobos by Sean Baklini and Tim Buttner over Santa Clara’s Connor Garnett and Kamran Khan, 6-3. Unfortunately,  the second flight double’s duo of Jorge Escutia and Michael Tran were just edged out by Jesus Tapiador Barajas and Vasileios Iliopoulos, 7-6, awarding the double’s point to the Broncos.
 
Unfortunately for the Lobos, single’s play started with a loss in the third flight by Holis against Barajas (6-1, 6-1), followed by another loss in the fourth flight by Buttner against Garnett (6-1, 6-2).  The Lobos also fell short in the first flight with Van Leijsen losing to Gu (7-5, 6-1), in the fifth flight with Baklini losing to Iliopoulos (6-4, 6-4), and in the sixth flight with Tran losing to Khan (6-4, 6-4).

The only win in single’s from UNM occurred in the second flight, where Jorge Escutia fought a hard battle to earn the win over SCU’s Rob Seby, with a final score of 6-3, 3-6, 10-8. However, this was not enough to earn the overall win for the Lobos, and they ended 1-6 with a Santa Clara victory.
 
The Lobos will play again Friday, Feb. 23 against Utah as they return home to Linda Estes Tennis Center in Albuquerque at 11 a.m. The Lobos will then face UC Santa Barbara on Sunday, Feb. 25 at 12 p.m. home to round out the weekend of play.