Lobos Open MW with a 4-1 win over Fresno State
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — After a windy match lasting nearly three hours, The University of New Mexico men’s tennis team took a 4-1 win over the Fresno State Bulldogs at the McKinnon Family Tennis Stadium, posting their first conference win of the season.
The Lobos improve their home record to 5-1 with a 6-6 overall record and have won five of the team’s last six games. The Bulldogs are now 1-1 in conference and 11-9 overall.
Doubles opened with UNM’s Dominic West and Facundo Bermejo facing Fresno State’s Cem Erturk and Mantas Bugailiskis. The match was back and forth until the UNM duo pulled ahead to post a 6-4 win, giving the Lobos one of the two doubles wins needed. West and Bermejo have now won five doubles matches in a row which serves as the longest doubles win-streak on the team.
The UNM doubles team of Nicolas Prieto and Tim Buttner clinched the doubles point for the Lobos with a 7-5 win over Bulldogs Cagatay Soke and Angus Bradshaw, who were undefeated in doubles prior to this match at 4-0. This was only the third match that freshman Prieto and sophomore Buttner played together as a doubles team, and the first time that the duo posted a win this season.
With the one point lead, the Lobos took the first two singles matches to make the score 3-0. The first of the singles matches to finish was done so with ease as sophomore Buttner handled Fresno State’s Ertuk, posting a 6-4, 6-0 win. That win was just the second of the Spring for Buttner, but it turned out to be a key win.
The second match of the day to finish was between junior West and Fresno State’s Bradshaw. In similar fashion, West defeated the Bulldog 6-2, 6-1, extending his singles win streak to five. West also now leads the team in singles wins with a total of 16 on the season so far.
The lone Lobo loss on the day was from Rick Hernandez Tong who faced Fresno State’s Zdenek Derkas. The UNM senior was never able to get his game on track and was defeated 6-3, 6-2.
The three remaining matches on the day were neck to neck through their entirety, all going to a third set. Freshman Bermejo was the singles match win that clinched the Lobo victory, even though all of the remaining matches were minutes away from finishing. In fact, while Bermejo clinched it, it was Stepan Holis who might have effectively killed off any hopes of a Bulldog rally. Holis was close to finishing out his match as he was winning the third set 5-0. The fact that it was in a third set at all was a little shocking. Holis dropped his opening set 6-3, and then went to a tiebreaker at 6-6. The sophomore Holis quickly found himself down 5-1 in the tiebreaker, and with Fresno State having just made it 3-1, they were two points away from making it 3-2 and taking the upper hand. However, Holis fought his way back.
Down 5-1 and receiving, he hit a baseline winner to make it 5-2. He then took advantage of a mishit and a double fault to get it to 5-4. Holis then had a dropshot for a point, and his opponent Bugailiskis went long and suddenly it was 6-5 and set point for Holis. He safely volleyed until Bugailiskis hit wide, and whatever momentum Fresno State thought they had swung right back to the Lobos. From there, it was on Bermejo, and the man who clinched a 4-3 win over No. 39 Wichita State didn’t disappoint.
Bermejo started off strong, posting a 6-2 win over Soke in the first set. The Bulldog was quick to answer back with a win of this own, 4-6. Facundo had some tough breaks over the day, but overcame these in the third set, closing the day with a 6-3 win in the last set, clinched the opener for New Mexico.
The two matches that were left unfinished were between UNM’s Prieto and Holis. Prieto’s last match was tied at 5-5 before the UNM win was clinched and Holis was up 5-0.
The match ended UNM’s six-game homestand and they now hit the road to Reno, Nevada where they will play conference opponent Nevada on Sunday, March 31.
NOTES: The loss ended a four-match winning streak for Tong … West hasn’t lost in singles since February 17 at Utah … West is 6-0 at home, and was at match point at the time of a clinch in the only other home match he’s played … Holis has a four-match winning streak with three unfinished matches over that stretch, and he was up in the third set in all of them (4-2, 6-5 and 5-0).