Men's Tennis Hosts Pacific in Home Opener

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — You sort of can’t fault the University of New Mexico men’s tennis team if they head to the airport on Saturday, but if you see them, fans should do the team a solid and remind them to turn around, because they aren’t on the road this week.  The Lobos, who opened with six straight road matches, will finally get a little home cooking as the team hosts Pacific at noon on Sunday in the home opener.

The Lobos enter the match at 1-5, having defeated Lamar in its opener before losing six straight, including a pair of hotly contested matches.  UNM has a 4-3 loss at Loyola Marymount and a 4-2 loss at Utah, along with losses at BYU, Texas Tech and Oregon.  Now however, the team will get to lay at home, although the weather will force the teams to play inside the bubbles at the Estes Tennis Center.  

“It’s been an interesting start with some different guys in the lineup,” said head coach Ben Dunbar, who has used two midyear transfers in Facundo Bermejo and Casey Recci in most of his lineups this season.  “Still we are battling hard and improving each time out.  We are really close, and I’m happy for the guys to be able to play at home.”

The Pacific Tigers come in at 2-5 overall, with wins over Eastern Washington and Hawai’i, and the Tigers have lost two straight, losing 4-3 to UNLV and then 4-2 to UC Irvine on Friday.  Pacific has been strong at the top of their lineup, lead by Ross Watson, who is 5-2 in the Spring, including 4-1 at No. 2 singles.  For UNM, Ricky Hernandez Tong and Stepan Holis lead the team with 12 wins each for the year.

The matches in the indoor bubbles are fee on Sunday.  To get to the bubbles, fans should park in the Stadium West lot and walk through the tennis center to get to the bubbles.  Fans can follow along with live scoring by clicking here.