In the second straight road match with a 4-3 finish, the Lobos of the University of New Mexico’s men’s tennis team (10-5) have defeated the Shockers of Wichita State University (7-7). This win comes almost a week after the Shockers defeated the Lobos in the Mountain Pacific Invitational, 4-1.
Although double’s play was kicked off with a slow start, with second flight Ricky Hernandez-Tong and Dominic West falling to WSU’s Andrea Caligiana and Miroslav Herzan by a score of 4-6, third flight Stepan Holis and Sean Baklini bested Eddie Stoica and Haru Inoue by a score of 7-5 to tie up doubles. Luckily for the Lobos, first flight Bart Van Leijsen and Jorge Escutia were able to take down the #76 ranked duo of Murkel Dellien and Marius Frosa by a score of 7-6 to put the Lobos up 1-0 after doubles play.
Unfortunately for the Lobos, singles play started with two losses, the first in the sixth flight by Baklini, who was defeated by Caligiana 4-6, 2-6, and the second by Escutia, who was beat by Herzan, 4-6, 3-6. This was then followed by a win by Hernandez-Tong in the second flight over Frosa, 6-4, 7-6 to tie the score at two points.
In the third flight, West was unable to secure a win for the Lobos, falling to Dellien 6-7, 2-6, putting the Shockers within one point of the victory; however, back-to-back wins by UNM, the first coming from first flight Van Leijsen over Inoue, 6-2, 6-7, 6-3, and the second by fifth flight Holis over Stoica, 5-7, 6-4, 7-5, were able to secure and overall win for the Lobos, with Holis clinching the match.
“That was a fantastic match.” Head Coach Ben Dunbar said. “They fought hard, we fought hard and it was just a fun match. Our Lobos are really growing into competitors, and it’s great to see. We can’t wait to play NMSU on Thursday.”
The Lobos will be back in action Thursday, March 15 at 1 P.M. in Las Cruces, N.M. as they face off against the Aggies of New Mexico State University.