Lobos Enter MW Tourney as Top Seed
Schedule
Mountain West Quarterfinals: Thurs, April 25, 2019 (9 am Pacific/10 am Mountain)
#1 New Mexico vs. #8 Air Force
Fresno, California (Spalding G. Wathan Tennis Center)
Watch Live on the MWN! 
Mountain West Tournament Central
FRESNO, Calif. — The run was epic. Winning nine in a row, and 12 of 14 to go from 1-5 to 13-7 is quite the turnaround. Now it’s basically all in the past as UNM heads into the Mountain West Tournament with slim thoughts of an at large berth. The realistic answer for UNM’s NCAA Tournament plans is to win the tournament, being hosted by Fresno State at the Spalding G. Wathen Tennis Center Thursday through Saturday, April 25-27.
The Lobos will enter the tournament as the top seed after going a perfect 7-0 in Mountain West play. The Lobos had a shutout win over UNLV, 4-1 wins over Fresno State, Utah State and San Diego State, a 4-2 win over Nevada and 4-3 wins over Boise State and first round opponent Air Force.
The 7-0 unbeaten season gained UNM its second Mountain West regular season title in five years, and it put UNM in the best position possible to get to the NCAAs. The Lobos are looking for their 13th trip to the NCAA Tournament, and first since 2015 when UNM lost to Oklahoma State.
Here is a breakdown of UNM’s projected lineup, plus how that lineup did against Air Force, along with some tournament and tennis historical notes:
UNM vs. the field:
vs. #2 Utah State all-time: 4-3; in MW Tournament: 0-0
vs. #3 Fresno State all-time: 10-12; in MW Tournament: 1-0
vs. #4 San Diego State all-time: 32-26; in MW Tournament: 7-3
vs. #5 UNLV all-time: 21-17; in MW Tournament: 2-3
vs. #6 Nevada all-time: 10-0; in MW Tournament: 0-0
vs. #7 Boise State all-time: 10-22; in MW Tournament: 0-4
vs. #8 Air Force all-time: 45-3; in MW Tournament: 6-1
vs. the 2 seeds in MW Tournament: 1-3
vs. the 3 seeds in MW Tournament: 4-2
vs. the 4 seeds in MW Tournament: 1-1
vs. the 5 seeds in MW Tournament: 2-3
vs. the 6 seeds in MW Tournament: 5-3
vs. the 7 seeds in MW Tournament: 3-0
vs. the 8 seeds in MW Tournament: 1-0
UNM as the No. 1 seed is 3-1
No. 1 Doubles – Ricky Hernandez Tong/Stepan Holis
Season record: 12-7
Spring Record: 9-6 (all at No. 1)
Last 10 matches: 6-4
Current Streak: W1
Hernandez Tong and Holis were quite the duo during the season, and their 9-6 spring record is deceiving. Half of the losses by the duo were in tiebreakers, meaning they were THIS CLOSE to 12-3 as a doubled team. The pair will be looking for a little revenge against Air Force’s Patrick Sklenka and Tadhg Collins, which is the last team to beat them as the Air Force pair won 6-2 on Saturday.
No. 2 Doubles – Dominic West/Facundo Bermejo
Season record: 13-5
Spring Record: 13-5 (12-4 at No. 2, 1-1 at No. 3)
Last 10 matches: 9-1
Current Streak: L1
In a shocker on Sunday, West and Bermejo saw their 11-match winning streak end with a 6-2 loss at Denver. This pairing never played together in the fall, and struggled early in the season, winning their opening match against Lamar at No. 3 in a tiebreaker and then losing four of their next five. That’s when their epic roll started, winning in convincing fashion against Wichita State 6-1, and then rolling off 11 straight wins. That streak technically ended against Air Force when they were leading against Jamie Bautista and Paul Hendrix, and their match went unfinished. Over the last two months, there really hasn’t been a more dominating duo than this pairing.
No. 3 Doubles – Tim Buttner/Nicolas Prieto
Season record: 3-6
Spring Record: 3-6 (all at No. 3)
Last 10 matches: 3-6
Current Streak: L3
Another pairing that never played together in the fall, Buttner and Prieto have one win in their last five matches, but the pairing has played well, losing a tough match in a tiebreak 7-6 (7-5) in their last outing on Sunday at Denver. The pairing also has a deceiving record, losing a couple of sure wins due to clinched doubles points. The duo lost to Air Force’s Isaac Perez and Mack Galvin 6-4 on Saturday.
No. 1 Singles – Ricky Hernandez Tong
Season record: 22-13
Spring Record: 11-9 (all at No. 1)
Last 10 matches: 8-2
Current Streak: W1
Hernandez Tong was the first Lobo in 15 years to win the Mountain Region title in the fall, and he has been one of UNM’s hotter players in the spring. After hitting a tough stretch from January 20 through February 24 when he went 0-6, he has been nearly unstoppable. There were seeds in that six-match losing streak, as the final three all went three sets. Since then, he has turned in a 10-3 record, with one of the three losses coming in a third-set tiebreaker. He reeled off a six-match winning streak that saw him roll through 10 straight sets, earning back-to-back Mountain West Player of the Week honors.
The match that ended that streak came at the hands of Air Force’s Patrick Sklenka, a match Hernandez Tong wants back after a 6-1, 6-1, his worst of the season. He certainly bounced back from that loss, posting a 6-1, 6-0 win over Sunday at Denver that took less than an hour. It was his third win in the last seven matches that featured him allowing just one or no games to his opponent.
No. 2 Singles – Dominic West
Season record: 22-7
Spring Record: 13-4 (all at No. 2)
Last 10 matches: 8-2
Current Streak: L1
West enters the Mountain West Tournament with a bad taste in his mouth. His wicked comeback against Denver fell just short in the deciding match, falling 6-4, 6-7 (10-12), 7-6 (8-6). That is just one of two losses in his last 14 matches and West has been a dominating force, and the emotional leader on the court for UNM. He is 11-2 over his last 14 matches, and he was at match point for a 12th as well in the one unfinished match in that span.
His 22-7 mark is the best winning percentage on the team (.759) and his 13 spring wins lead the team. In the last 18 sets that he has won, only two of them got closer than 6-2, showing that West is more shark than anything else, smelling blood in the water, attacking and never relenting. His last win is a 6-2, 6-1 win over Air Force’s Luke Sanderson.
No. 3 Singles – Stepan Holis
Season record: 22-9
Spring Record: 12-4 (11-4 at No. 3, 1-0 at No. 4)
Last 10 matches: 8-1
Current Streak: W6
The third of three Lobos tied at the top of the singles wins list with 22, Holis has won his last his matches and has lost just once since February 15. That run includes an 11-1 mark with three unfinished matches in which he was leading 4-2, 6-5 with match point and 5-0 needing two points to win. It’s been a run for the ages for Holis, who has more than recovered from a short three-match losing streak to start February.
Holis has a win over Air Force’s Paul Hendrix over his current six-match winning streak, the longest current streak on the team. He also has won four of his last five three-set matches, with those three unfinished matches in there as well.
No. 4 Singles – Tim Buttner
Season record: 4-9
Spring Record: 4-9 (4-8 at No. 4, 0-1 at No. 5)
Last 10 matches: 3-3
Current Streak: L1
Buttner is guilty of playing the longer matches for UNM with four of his last eight matches going unfinished. That however doesn’t tell the story, as his unfinished match against San Diego State was a key in UNM’s win. SDSU was getting back into it and Buttner, who was up 4-1 in the first set and lost 6-4, was in danger of losing in two straight, but he battled hard for a gutsy 6-3 second set win, and that win seemed to suck the life out of SDSU’s comeback attempt.
Buttner in 2-1 in his last six matches, and one of those wins came against Air Force’s Tadhg Collins 7-6 (7-3), 6-4.
No. 5 Singles – Facundo Bermejo
Season record: 8-6
Spring Record: 8-6 (1-0 at No. 4, 6-6 at No. 5, 1-0 at No. 6)
Last 10 matches: 3-5
Current Streak: L1
Some conference teams might not recognize him after a fairly drastic haircut about two weeks ago, but Facu as he is known has been a key for UNM on the court. After hitting a rough patch over a three-week span in which he went 0-3 with two unfinished matches, he went 2-1 last weekend to get back on track.
Bis biggest contribution to UNM’s winning ways was grabbing the clincher against Wichita State and his 6-2, 6-1 win over Mack Galvin of Air Force. Bermejo plays plenty of close exciting matches. He’s been involved in five tiebreakers, including an unfinished match that started 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (7-5), 1-0.
No. 6 Singles – Nicolas Prieto
Season record: 9-5
Spring Record: 4-3 (1-1 at No. 5, 3-2 at No. 6)
Last 10 matches: 3-2
Current Streak: W1
Prieto rejoined the lineup for good at No. 6 singles on March 24, and UNM promptly went on it’s nine-match winning streak. Prieto has had a host of unfinished matches (five during the last nine matches), but he’s won three of five decisions as well. The biggest win easily was his bizarre 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) win over Boise State’s Stefan Lalovic. That match involved a comeback, and then at 4-4, 40-30 in the third, a rain delay and a venue change (from outdoor to indoor) that saw the players pile into vans like little kids going to practice in order to get shuttled to the new venue. Only the orange slices were missing.
Prieto took a loss against Air Force’s Robert Baylon 6-1, 6-2 in a match that on paper is the worst loss of the season, meaning Prieto should be ready to go to prove that was not the norm on Thursday.