Box Score | 2017-18 Season Statistics
ABILENE, Texas — For a second straight match since returning to action after missing two weeks of action due to a car accident, The University of New Mexico women’s tennis team had a match come down to the final singles flight. For the second straight time, UNM came out on the wrong side of a 4-3 decision.
Yue Lin “Polly” Chen battled hard, but couldn’t overcome breaks of serve in both sets, dropping the seventh and final point as Abilene Christian improved to 5-3 with a 4-3 win over the Lobos, which dropped to 1-3 overall.
UNM opened the match down 1-0 as the team was swept in doubles, with Natasha Munday and Ruth Copas falling at No. 1 and Ruth Copas and Hsiang-Wen “Albie” Huang both losing 6-1. At No. 3, Diana Wong and Bronte Murgett forced a tiebreaker but fell 7-6.
Wong rebounded and ended her three-match losing skid with a 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 win at No. 3 singles. However, ACU went up 3-1 with wins at No. 1 and No. 2 singles as the matches were held in ACU’s Teague Events Center, where there are just three courts. Copas lost 6-3, 7-5 at No. 1 and Quevedo, playing in her home state, lost 7-5, 7-6 (7-4).
The bottom three flights then took the courts with UNM needing the sweep, and they almost got it. Murgett won again, improving to 3-1 in the Spring, with a 6-2, 6-3 win, and right behind her was Huang, who took a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 5, tying the match at 3-3. That left things up to Chen, but she fell 6-3, 6-2, giving the win to Abilene Christian.
UNM now returns home for a match at home with Utah on Friday at 1 p.m. and on Sunday with Colorado at noon.
NOTES: Murgett now has the longest active winning streak on the team with three in a row … Despite the previous three-match losing streak, Wong is now 13-3 in her last 16 dual match singles decisions … the Lobos are now 3-1 in both the No. 3 and No. 4 singles flights, but 0-4 at No. 2, using three different players there.