Lobo Bounce Back with Convincing 4-1 Win
EL PASO, Texas — Lesson learned. A day after taking a lead but not being able to hold it, the Lobos took a lead and cruised to a 4-1 victory at UTEP. The win evened UNM’s record at 1-1 on the season and it dropped UTEP to 1-2 on the season.
“I’m proud of our team for the way they showed resilience after yesterday’s close battle,” said head coach Vicky Maes. “We came out strong in doubles, started a little slow in singles but recovered and found ways to points on the board.”
The Lobos for the second straight day took the doubles point. Sara Kuuttila-Webbert and Myu Kageyama teamed up at No. 2 doubles and for the second straight day cruised to a 6-1 win. Bronte Murgett and Natasha Munday closed it out at No. 1 doubles with a 6-2 win, giving UNM the point. Maes did change her doubles lineup, sliding Danielle Quevedo and Hsaing-Wen “Albie” Huang out after winning yesterday, and moving Yue Lin “Polly” Chen and Alisia Manolescu into the lineup, and they were trailing 5-3 at the doubles clinch.
The moved the match to singles with UNM up 1-0. The match moved to 2-1 UNM as Murgett took a 6-1, 6-2 win at No. 2 over Erandi Martinez but Manolescu fell at No. 3 to Lina Sachica 6-3, 6-2. However, that was the last hurrah for UTEP as UNM was solid in every other match, and it turned into a question of who would clinch it first.
Quevedo made it 3-1 with a 7-5, 6-0 win at No. 5 over Eve Daniels, and Kuuttila-Webbert took a 6-1, 7-5 win at No. 1 singles of Vanessa Valdez right afterwards for the clincher at 4-1. That win by Quevedo came right in front of Kageyama, who was up 6-4, 6-6 and awaiting the resumption of her tiebreak, which was 3-3 at the switch.
Munday was also winning her match at No. 4, leading 7-5, 2-4.
The win sets up UNM for a Texas road trip, with UNM traveling to TCU for a match on Thursday and SMU on Friday. Those matches start at noon and 11 a.m. Mountain Time respectively. “Getting that first win was crucial and now we can go into the match vs. TCU a bit more relaxed,” said Maes.