Lobos Win Battle of Unbeatens, In First All Alone
LOGAN, Utah — In a battle of the two lone unbeaten teams in the Mountain West that figured to be wrought with drama, it turned out to be not that dramatic after all, at least after doubles. UNM took the doubles point after needing a tiebreaker that was all New Mexico, and then the Lobos got three singles wins including a clincher by Tim Buttner, and New Mexico defeated Utah State 4-1 in Logan in a matchup of the last two unbeaten teams in the league.
The win pushed New Mexico to 9-6 overall and 4-0 in the Mountain West. The Aggies dropped to 15-8 overall and 3-1 in the league, and they fell into a tie for second place with Fresno State, which is also 3-1. The win for New Mexico was the eighth in UNM’s last nine outings, and UNM is now one game up on Fresno State and Utah State, with wins over both. The Lobos with three games left in the regular season could clinch a share of the Mountain West title with wins in two of their last three conference games.
As things have tended to go for UNM, the doubles point was a taut affair, and after Utah State took No. 3 doubles, getting a 6-4 win from Sergui Bucur and Duro Opacic over Buttner and Nicolas Prieto, UNM needed to get both other matches. Dominic West and Facundo Bermejo got a win at No. 2 with a 6-3 win, the duo’s eighth straight doubles win. That left the doubles point to No. 1, with UNM’s Ricky Hernandez Tong and Stepan Holis going against Rithkiv Bollipalli and Jose Carvajal, and it was all tied up at 6-6, sending the match and the doubles point to a tiebreaker, where one would think the drama would heighten.
One would be wrong. The tiebreaker was all New Mexico. Hernandez Tong and Holis won to the tune of a 7-0 blitz, and UNM was up 1-0. That was in reality the beginning of the end of the match, as UNM would take three singles flights to win.
Hernandez Tong, fresh off the shutout tiebreaker, hammered Isaac Arevalo Gomez 6-1, 6-2 for a quick 2-0 lead. The lone shocker of the match was what happened to get Utah State a point, as Dominic West, UNM’s hottest player, fell at No. 2 singles. It ended a seven match winning streak for West as he lost to Carvajal 6-1, 6-3. That lost was just the sixth of the year for West.
Desite not getting a win that has been an absolute lock over the last month, UNM previled with relative ease. Holis at No. 3 singles took a 7-5, 6-4 win over Felipe Acosta to make it 3-1, and UNM needed just one more. With Bermejo and Prieto both in third sets, it was Buttner at No. 4 that clinched the match. Tim defeated Bucur 6-3, 7-5, coming back to win the final three games of the season set. Buttner’s win was just his third of the season, but he is now 2-1 in conference play.
Now UNM heads home after a 3-0 road swing to take on UNLV on Friday at 4 p.m. in the backend of a home doubleheader with the women’s team, which plays New Mexico State at 10 a.m. UNM then plays San Diego State on Sunday at 1 p.m. on senior day for Ricky Hernandez Tong.
NOTES: Hernandez Tong is now tied with Dominic West with 18 singles wins … men’s tennis last won a regular season conference title in 2015 under former coach Bart Scott … UNM would clinch a share of the regular season title with any combo of two wins over its final three conference matches, but UNM would clinch the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament with two wins in the upcoming week.