ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Having lost back-to-back matches 4-3, and then seeing a 3-0 lead slowly evaporate, there wasn’t a lot of panic amongst the New Mexico Lobo women’s tennis team. They were at home and McKinnon Magic was in full effect.
Hsiang-Wen “Albie” Huang picked up a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 match-clinching victory at No. 5 singles, propelling UNM to a 4-2 win over Utah, a member of the Pac-12 conference and a team that entered the match 7-3 on the season. The win came for UNM in its first home match of the season.
UNM opened the day by securing the doubles point for the third time in five matches this season. Diana Wong and Bronte Murgett combined at No. 2 doubles for a relatively easy 6-3 win over Alexia Petrovic and Jenna Cheng. The bigger and closer battles were at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles. With UNM’s Danielle Quevedo serving at 40-40 and down 4-5 at No. 1 doubles, Natasha Munday and Lauren Rich battled back from down 5-4 to take the final three games and clinch the doubles point.
For Rich, it marked her first doubles appearance since the opening weekend on January 26-27.
It moved the singles, and although it was the first singles match to finish, clearly the key match was Diana Wong’s matchup at No. 3 singles. Wong and Margo Pletcher waged a terrific opening set battle, with each player alternating leads at 2-1, 3-2, 4-3, and 5-4. Up 6-5, Pletcher was able to hold serve and force a tiebreaker, and Pletcher was all over Wong early, bolting to a 5-2 lead. Wong then battled back, taking advantage of a pair of unforced errors and placing a cross-court winner to end a spectacular five-point run, stealing the opening set 7-6 (7-5).
Wong then cruised from there, blitzing Pletcher with a variety of passing shots to take the match 7-6 (7-5), 6-0. UNM then went up 3-0 when Ruth Copas took a commanding 5-2 lead in the opening set to win at No. 1 singles over Petrovic 7-5, 6-2.
From there UNM needed just one win, but it took a little while as all four other singles matches went to a third set. The Utes picked up two points within seconds of each other on adjoining courts when Cheng beat Murgett at No. 4 singles 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 and Chisholm beat Quevedo at No. 2 singles 5-7, 6-2, 6-2. Having lost the previous two matches 4-3, Huang made sure it never got that far.
With the match even at one apiece and tied 2-2 in the third set, Huang broke Whitney Turley twice and secured the win with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 victory. The win was extra special for head coach Stephanie Wooten-Quijada, as it came over her former coach. Utah’s Mat Iandolo was Wooten-Quijada’s coach at Purdue when she played there, and it marked her first win over her former coach in three tries. UNM hosts Colorado on Sunday at noon in a match that will take place indoors at the Estes Tennis Center.
NOTES: Murgett’s three-match winning streak was snapped … Munday, who hails from Great Britain, got her win with her parents in attendance … Wong improved to 5-2 in tiebreaks/supersets … Murgett and Wong have won three of their last four doubles matches … Rich is now a team-best 11-4 in doubles.
Lobos Take Down Utah 4-2 at McKinnon
