Having not played in 11 months and only having practiced for a little over two weeks, Maes was thankful for Metro State’s hospitality in hosting the match, a rarity for a Division II school to do with a Division I team as the road squad.
“It’s been almost a year since we last took the court, so we are grateful to be back doing what we love. Another one tomorrow and a great opportunity to improve some more,” said Maes.
UNM’s new-look lineup with had a pair of newcomers and three new doubles teams making their debuts, and it worked out quite well as UNM swept the doubles point with relative ease. Hsaing-Wen “Albie” Huang teamed up with freshman Hsuan Huang (no relation) for a 6-1 win at No. 3 doubles. Finishing right behind them to clinch the opening point was My Kagayama and freshman Satoho Toriumi, who won 6-2 at No. 2 doubles.
Playing No. 1 and together for the first time, Natasha Munday and Yue Lin “Polly” Chen won 6-4 to sweep all three matches.
From there despite the weather, the match went to singles and the weather was a factor in evening out the play. Using just four courts, only the first four singles matches got started, with Chen opening her season with a 6-3, 6-3 straight-set win in her first match at No. 2 singles since her freshman year in 2018.
That match ended fairly early, allowing Hsuan Huang to get on the court at No. 5 singles. The other three early matches would all go three sets. Munday, playing No. 1 for the first time in her career, recovered from an opening set loss to force a third, while teammates Danielle Quevedo at No. 3 and Kageyama at No. 4 did the opposite, winning their opening sets but losing the second. Quevedo’s was particularly heartbreaking, dropping a second set tiebreaker 7-5.
With all in the third set, Huang easily won her first set 6-0. Munday then dropped her third set 6-3 to gain a point for Metro State, making it 2-1. UNM quickly clinched the match behind a 6-3 win by Quevedo and then a 7-6 (7-4) tiebreak win by Kageyama.
With the temperature dropping, Albie Huang hit the court and split her first two sets as Hsuan Huang swept her match 6-0, 6-2 to make it 5-1. With snow coming down and Denver more apt for a Broncos game than a tennis match, Albie Huang and Lilly Stienemeier played a 10-point third-set tiebreak, with Stienemeier winning 10-8 to end it.
The match was the first of four in five days over three cities and two states for New Mexico, which faces CSU-Pueblo tomorrow at 11 a.m. before hitting the highway to head to Lubbock, Texas. There UNM will play Abilene Christian on Sunday at 7:30 a.m. Mountain Time at Texas Tech before facing the host Red Raiders on Monday.
NOTES: Chen’s doubles win equals her 2020 total … Chen now has 44 singles wins, the active leader on the squad … Munday played No. 1 despite never playing even as high as No. 2 in her career. She played three matches last year at No. 3 … Albie Huang hadn’t lost at No. 6 singles since 2018 … Munday now has 48 doubles wins, making her the active wins leader in doubles … Chen hadn’t played No. 2 singles since her freshman year in 2018.
