Bermejo Nets Win, But Lobos Fall 4-1 to Louisville
WACO, Texas — Facundo Bermejo picked up a straight set win, but Louisville was able to squeak out a 4-1 win to advance in the ITA Kickoff Invitational at Waco, Texas. UNM falls into the consolation bracket and will play at 10 Mountain against either Gonzaga or No. 5 Baylor.
The match was indicative of the seeding, as UNM was the No. 3 seed in the pod and Louisville No. 2, and the two teams were very evenly matched.
The Cardinals (5-0) took the doubles point in a tight one. UNM’s No. 3 doubles team of Alex Maggs and Stepan Holis took down Alex Wesbrooks and David Mizrahi 6-4, but UNM couldn’t get one of the other two doubles matches. Dominic West and Bermejo lost 6-3 at No. 2 to even it up, and facing a 40-40 deuce point, UNM’s No. 1 team of Jake Tronsdon and Raul Dobai couldn’t break serve, giving the point to Louisville.
From there it went to singles, and it was clearly a match that was going to go either way. Everything was tight and close all the way through the match. Louisville took a 2-0 lead when Filho Clement defeated Nicolas Prieto at No. 6 6-2, 6-4, but UNM was able to answer at No. 5 singles as Bermejo won 6-4, 6-3, getting UNM on the board.
Dominic West had a tough opponent, once again facing a ranked foe in No. 42 Tin Chen. West went down quickly 6-0 in the first set, but then turned it on, battling into a tiebreaker in the second before losing 7-3. That made it 3-1 with three matches very much in flux.
Holis was even through two sets, rebounding from a 6-4 loss in the first to win the second 6-1. While he was in his third set, Sergio Molina was in a long drawn-out affair at No. 3. Molina won his first set 7-4 in a tiebreaker before losing the second set 7-5. Raul Dobai at No. 4 also had a first set tiebreaker win, winning an epic set 10-8. He was at 5-5 in the second, serving to go up 6-5 when Holis finally fell in his third set 6-3, giving Louisville a 4-1 win.
“Credit to Louisville today as they played very well,” said head coach Ben Dunbar. “It’s the best dual match we’ve played thus far and we are building in the right direction. These guys will continue to grow and get better. We are looking forward to playing again tomorrow.”