Lobos Sweep Away New Mexico State 4-0
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The doubles point played out much like Sunday’s match with New Mexico State did. For the briefest of moments, it looked like the match between UNM and NMSU would be a tight affair that would go the distance. Then, the Lobos put the hammer down. UNM did it in the doubles point, and then in the match overall as the Lobos easily handled New Mexico State 4-0 in front of a loud Sunday crowd at McKinnon Family Tennis Stadium.
The Lobos improved to 4-5 on the season and could get to .500 on Monday as the team will host Drake University at 4 p.m. at McKinnon. New Mexico State fell to 6-8 on the season.
The match opened in doubles play, and it didn’t start out perfectly for UNM. While Ricky Hernandez Tong and Stepan Holis won handily at No. 1 doubles 6-3, but the Lobos trailed both other doubles matches. At No. 2, Dominic West and Facundo Bermejo were own 4-1 while Nicolas Prieto and Tim Buttner were trailing from the start, although their match stayed on serve.
But every time it looked like New Mexico State could see a little bit of daylight, the Lobos slammed the curtain shut. That’s exactly what happened at No. 2 doubles as West and Bermejo held serve to make it 4-2, then picked up a break to make it 4-3.
Here is the clinching point for Dominic West #GoLobos pic.twitter.com/E6eiO375fp
— UNM Men’s Tennis (@UNMLoboMTennis) March 17, 2019
Another hold of serve evened the match and put all the momentum on UNM’s side. The Lobos then cruised in the final two games, giving West and Bermejo the final five in the set as UNM won 6-4, taking the doubles point.
The match shuttled to singles where UNM took two first sets and New Mexico State took two first sets, with two others going to tiebreakers. The first to go was at No. 1 singles where Hernandez Tong had to win the final game down 6-5 to force the tiebreak. He and Stijn de Haan each held serve through 3-3 before Hernandez Tong got a mini break to go up 4-3. He split his next two serves and then held on de Haan for a 6-4 lead. De Haan got one point back, but Hernandez Tong force de Haan wide, and the opening set was his.
While that tiebreak went on, Casey Recci came back from four set points, down 6-5 and 40-love to force a tiebreaker, that also needed extra time as it was 6-6 in the tiebreaker. Recci however had a perfect drop shot to get a lead, and then an unforced error gave him an 8-6 tiebreak win.
Curtain closed.
Both Stepan Holis and Tim Buttner bounced back from first set losses to win their second sets and force a third set. Neither would finish. That’s because Bermejo, who clinched the win over No. 39 Wichita State last week, hammered Mauri Benitez 6-0, 6-2 to give UNM a 2-0 lead.
Hernandez Tong, who needed that opening set tiebreaker, handled de Haan was ease in the second set, and his 7-6, 6-3 win made it 3-0, and then the only drama is which match would finish first to be the clincher.
The Lobos were up handily in all four remaining matches, but it was Dominic West with the honors. West had a battle in his opening set, but no issues in the second, and he won 6-4, 6-1 to give UNM a 4-0 win. They didn’t play the match out with UNM having a match tomorrow, but it was well on the way to a 7-0 blitz. Recci was up 7-6, 5-2 at No. 6 singles, Buttner was winning his third set 3-0, 30-love at No. 4 and Holis was up 4-2, 40-love at No. 3.
NOTE: The clinch denied Buttner his second win of the season in singles … Bermejo improved to 5-1 in singles … Hernandez Tong and Holis won their team-leading seventh doubles match.