BOISE, Idaho — No doubles point? No problem.
The University of New Mexico blitzed the Nevada Wolf Pack in singles, roaring back from a 2-0 deficit to win 4-2 and advance to the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Women’s Tennis Championships, hosted by Boise State University at the Appleton Tennis Center.
The Lobos advance to take on the No. 1 seed UNLV Rebels at noon tomorrow. The entire tournament will be conducted at the Appleton Tennis Center, utilizing Julia Davis Park as a practice/warm-up site only.
The Lobos entered the match on a three-match skid, dropping the doubles point in all three. Once again, UNM fell behind 1-0 without the doubles point. Melissa Huchet and Marta Ruedas defeated Diana Wong and Natasha Munday 6-3 at No. 2 doubles for an early lead. UNM held a 4-1 lead at No. 1 with all-conference honorees Danielle Quevedo and Hsiang-Wen “Albie” Huang up, but they dropped five straight games to Nevada’s Claudia Herrero and Blaga Delic to give Nevada the point.
That comeback negated UNM’s own comeback and No. 3 doubles, as Ruth Copas, back from her Fed Cup experience with Ireland, and Bronte Murgett came back from down 5-3 to hold a 6-5 lead at the clinching moment.
That sent the match to singles, where UNM took over. Nevada won its only match at No. 1 with Herrero taking down Wong 6-3, 6-3 for a 2-0 lead, but from there it was all UNM. Quevedo got UNM on the board with a 6-0, 6-4 win over Huchet, and the then her doubles partner Huang took a 6-1, 7-5 win over Maria Tatarnikova to square everything at 2-2.
UNM’s first lead came with Yue Lin “Polly” Chen took a 6-4, 6-4 win at No. 2 doubles over Adriana Gergelyova. That put UNM in clinching position, and it eventually came down to who would get it first. Copas had a chance, up 7-5, 5-4 and up 40-30, but she couldn’t get the match point she needed against Lili Fekete, as Fekete forced deuce. That meant Bronte Murgett was able to get the clincher instead, winning 1-6, 6-3, 6-3, sending UNM to the quarterfinals.
The Lobos improved to 10-10 on the season, while Nevada ended its season at 9-9.
NOTES: Murgett and Huang have now won four straight singles matches … the win was UNM’s first without the doubles point since a 4-2 win over UTSA on March 15 … UNM’s bottom three rungs in singles (4, 5, 6) are a combined 27-9 over the last 13 matches.
Strong Singles Play Sends Lobos to Quarters
