Wild, Wild West! Lobos Top Utah 4-3
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — When you are the lone returning senior on a conference championship team, at some point in a season, you are going to be called upon to win a match for your team. For Dominic West and the New Mexico men’s tennis team, that day was Sunday, February 16, and West didn’t just answer the call, but he delivered a performance that thrilled a crowd of nearly 300 at McKinnon Family Tennis Stadium.
With the Lobos up 3-1, West bounced back from a tough opening set that saw him get broken twice early to defeat Utah’s top player Franco Capalbo 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 to clinch a third straight win for New Mexico, winning 4-3 over Utah.
West and teammate Sergio Molina blitzed through their doubles match, cruising to a 6-1 win. In that match, it was Molina’s big serve that again came in clutch. Up 5-1 and facing a double-break at 30-40, Molina went ace and ace, both times with serves that weren’t even touched, to close their set out.
Utah’s number one doubles team of Randy Cory and Russell Benkaim won 6-4 to even doubles, leaving everything to the No. 3 doubles match. Stepan Holis and Facundo Bermejo prevailed for UNM with Holis holding serve for a 6-4 win, giving UNM a 1-0 lead.
In singles, the Lobos opened with four opening set wins, but one of them wasn’t West, as he quickly found himself down in a 5-0 hole that he couldn’t climb out of. However, West’s match amped up when of all things, the crowd from the UNM softball game came over after the conclusion of that contest. Suddenly the crowd behind West went from about 20 to over 100, and the newcomers, including the entire UNM softball team in uniform and about 30 Lobo football players, energized the proceedings.
West didn’t win that opening set, but his game rose to the level of the crowd, and the level he’s used to. He lost 6-2, but clearly picked up momentum. While that was going on, Facundo Bermejo kept up his hot play, winning a fun match that featured a lot of big serves and big returns. Bermejo won 6-3, 7-5, making it 2-0 for UNM, but every other match went out to three sets, and Utah was able to answer quickly.
Azat Hankuliyev of Utah ended Rafael Abdulsalam’s winning streak, bouncing back with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 win to make it 2-1 UNM. Big hitting Raul Dobai at No. 4 singles got UNM within a point of victory with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win.
That left it up to either West at No. 1, Holis at No. 2 or Molina at No. 3. Holis couldn’t convert an opening set win, falling 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 to Benkaim, and suddenly it was 3-2 UNM. It would have been 3-3, but Molina was brilliant in his second set. After losing the opening set 6-4, battled back in the second, forcing a tiebreak by holding serve in the 12th game. That led to an epic tiebreaker.
Molina used an ace to gain set point at 6-5, but his opponent Slava Shainyan answered, and took a 7-6 lead and his first match point. Molina answered that, and also answered Shainyan’s second match point at 9-8 and a third at 10-9.
With both Molina and Shainyan both having three set points, Molina converted a fourth at 12-11 when Shainyan hit long. Molina’s 13-11 tiebreak win sent his match to a third set.
That possibly lessened the pressure on West, but it didn’t matter, because West never relented on Capalbo. A forehand winner gave him the break he needed to make it 4-2 after the third set was on serve through five games.
West than had a couple of game points, finally making it 5-2 on a deuce point. He then went up 0-40 and after an ace, he forced Capalbo wide. With that, West’s hat went flying, arms wide and he took the celebratory congratulations of his mates as UNM clinched the win.
All that was left was Molina’s match, and after fighting off the three match points in the second set, he faced three match points in the third before finally falling 6-4, 6-7 (11-13), 6-2.
The win pushed UNM’s record to 3-4, and Utah fell to 7-4. The Lobos head out on the road for a pair of matches, facing Drake in Des Moines, Iowa on Friday, February 22 at 4 p.m. Mountain Time before facing off with Michigan State the following day. That match will also be in Des Moines, at 10 am Mountain Time.
NOTES: UNM answered back from a 4-2 loss at Utah a year ago … UNM received its championship rings on Saturday at halftime of the men’s basketball game … the five three-setters in singles was the most in a match this year for UNM.