Men's Tennis Heads to Lubbock for Opening Weekend
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Every collegiate tennis coach has an official ITA scorebook, where the lineups are recorded for every dual match. For head men’s tennis coach Ben Dunbar, who is entering his third season, filling out the first line is easy.
Ricky Hernandez-Tong.
After that? Who knows, and maybe no one until match time as the Lobos open their Spring season with a neutral site match against Lamar at 4 p.m. Saturday in Lubbock before playing host Texas Tech on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
The 2019 Lobos feature a line-up of nine, and any of those nine could see time in the starting lineups this weekend. The lock however, is Hernandez-Tong. The 5-9 phenom shot up the ITA rankings after winning the ITA Mountain Region title, and he sits at No. 23 on the season. Hernandez-Tong led the team with a 11-4 record in the Fall, and if he is the lock, Stepan Holis is probably a lock as well. Holis went 10-5 in the Fall, followed by Dominic West, who was 9-3.
Nicolas Prieto was the other Lobo with a winning record, going 5-2. Overall UNM went 43-28 in singles in the Fall, a .606 winning percentage. Mixing and matching in doubles, UNM was 8-10.
Hernandez-Tong will be looked for leadership with a young team of four freshmen (Prieto, Karlo Divkovic and Spring newcomers Facundo Bermejo and Casey Ricci) and two sophomores (Holis and Tim Buttner). Hernandez-Tong isn’t the only senior leader, as Michael Tran is a fifth-year senior from Albuquerque who has seen it all in his team, playing throughout the lineup, sometimes as a late sub, and sometimes in a key match. Tran might be the father-figure on the team with his savvy and wisdom. Dominic West, known more informally at Westie, is a junior with a great track record of wins in big matches, and will help in the leadership role as well.
Sitting in front of UNM is a Lamar team that like the Lobos will be playing its season opener. The Cardinals last year went 10-14 and 2-3 in the Southland. Sunday’s match is against a 2-0 Texas Tech team that won a pair of matches in Tulsa, winning 5-2 over Bryant and 4-3 over home-standing Tulsa. The Red Raiders feature the nation’s No. 17 doubles team in Parker Wynn and Bjorn Thompson. Thompson is also nationally ranked in singles at No. 70