Copas Clinches Win Over Aggies on Senior Day
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — There was really no other ending that would have worked, is there? The lone senior in the program over a three-year span, the unquestioned leader of an entire team of underclassmen for a second straight year … that has the be the person to clinch Senior Day over your arch rival to finish off a perfect season.
There really was no other way, and on Friday afternoon, that Hollywood script went, well, as scripted. Ruth Copas, the only senior on the Lobo women’s tennis team, was feted prior to the match, and then clinched a 5-2 victory on Senior Day with a comeback second-set win in a tiebreaker, 7-0 over Rebecca Keijzerwaard.
The win pushed UNM to 11-8 on the season, and New Mexico State dropped to 12-9 overall. The Lobos have just one final match, next week at Air Force, before the Mountain West Tournament.
To get to Copas’ clincher, UNM needed the doubles point, and that was kicked off by Copas and Hsiang-Web “Albie” Huang. Copas and Huang jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but they then dropped the net four games. However, they bounced right back and took the final four for a 6-4 win. Natasha Munday and Bronte Murgett than finished off the doubles point at No. 2 with a 7-3 tiebreaker win. UNM was up on court 1 2-0 in a tiebreaker there as well.
When UNM leads 1-0 after doubles, it usually means good things because UNM continues to get hot play at No. 2 and No. 6 singles. Yue Lin “Polly” Chen was lights out again, improving to 22-6 on the season with a 6-1, 6-1 win, making it 2-0. Murgett then won her ninth straight match (and it should be 10 but a match was clinched with her at match point) at No. 2 singles to make it 3-0, and UNM needed just one more.
Copas had won her opening set 6-3, but fell behind 5-2 in the second to Keijzerwaard, and it certainly looked like a third set was to be had. Copas however had other ideas. She held serve in the eighth game and broke in the ninth, and it was 5-4 and momentum had clearly shifted. She repeated that process again, letting out a loud roar when she went up 6-5, the crowd following.
With a chance to serve out the match, she hit long at 30-40, forcing the tiebreaker. That tiebreaker allowed New Mexico State to clinch two points with wins at No. 4 and No. 5 singles, but it hardly mattered in the end. Copas was unstoppable in the tiebreaker. She earned a mini service break to open the tiebreaker, held for her two serves, and then broke two more times, making it 5-0.
From there she hit a winner for a 6-0 lead at the swap, and on her first service she put a ball to Keijzerwaard’s right that she couldn’t handle, giving her the clincher, and it set off a great celebration with her teammates, who were openly rooting for her to clinch it on her day.
The win was UNM’s eighth in the last nine matches, and the team is now off until taking on Air Force on Friday, April 19 at 3 p.m. in its final regular season match.
NOTES: New Mexico now leads the all-time series 35-6.