Chen's Thriller Wins it for UNM 4-3 Over UTEP

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Two things are becoming pretty clear about the 2021 version of The University of New Mexico women’s tennis team.  The first is the team seems to enjoy tight, long nailbiting matches that alternate between thrilling and gut-wrenching.  The second is the team also enjoys winning those matches, because they do it every single time.

Thursday was no different.  Playing at home for the first time in well over a year, and just the second home match in 714 days, New Mexico’s Yue Lin “Polly” Chen won a third set tiebreaker 7-2 after giving up all of a 5-0 third-set lead to give New Mexico a heart-stopping 4-3 win over UTEP, moving UNM to 6-2 in non-conference play and setting the Lobos up for its conference opening match on Saturday, also at home.

Chen’s match marked the fourth time this season that the Lobos have won a 4-3 match, without any losses.  It also marked the third time this season that Polly won the clinching match.  Against Abilene Christian, Chen won 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-5 at No. 2 singles for a 4-3 win, and she followed that up two matches later with a 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 win at No. 2 over New Mexico State’s Chloe Gavino.

As if by pattern, Chen lost her opening set, this time a 6-4 score, but she was able to bounce back, taking a fifth-game break to move ahead in the the second set, eventually sitting at 5-3 before breaking her opponent Vanessa Valdez, forcing a third set.  Chen, the owner of 47 singles wins in her career, but none at No. 1 singles (she entered 0-2 in her career) then bolted out to a 5-0 lead.  She was helped with a couple of double faults to break Valdez twice, but Chen was deft at making Valdez race from one side of the court to the other.  Chen and Valdez had hooked up in a fairly long doubles match, a 7-5 win that clinched the opening point, and both players started to make mistakes.  Still, after Valdez held to make it 5-1, Chen had chances to clinch it, and couldn’t quite convert.

She had match point at deuce leading 5-1, but sent a shot wide.  She had a pair of match points at 5-2, but Valdez was able to hold Chen off.  Chen then had another serve opportunity up 5-3 at deuce and just hit a ball wide.  At 5-4, she led 15-40 with Valdez serving, and somehow Valdez wriggled out of it to even the marathon at 5-5.  Chen then fell behind 15-40 and was perilously close to falling behind for the first time, but she hit a blistering cross-court winner to make it 30-40, and then Valdez was long.  At deuce, Chen finally earned a game making Valdez go to her backhand, which she couldn’t do anything with except hit it out, and it was 6-5.

Valdez then held for the tiebreaker, but it was all Chen.  Polly served for a 1-0 lead, and then got a minibreak on a double fault to make it 2-0, and she would never relinquish the lead.  At 3-2, Valdez had a serve to even it at the switch but after a solid return from Chen, Valdez perhaps sensed she needed to make a move, and her risky shot down the line missed, making it 4-2.

Chen made it 5-2 after the switch and then found something in the tank, because she served a blistering ace that Valdez watched helplessly whiz past her, not even moving.  That gave Chen an amazing eight match point, and this time she put it to good use.  Another great serve put Valdez on her heels, Chen hit a forehand and rushed the net and Valdez had no answer.  Her shot fell sheepishly into the net, and Chen, fairly exhausted at this point, just raised her arms as her teammates raced to her for victory hugs.  Valdez, valiant in the effort of a near miracle comeback, could only be consoled by her teammates.

The crazy last set followed a fairly routine match to that point as UNM swept all three doubles matches for a 1-0 lead.  Everything else went in straight sets with Hsuan Huang and Myu Kageyama winning 6-2, 6-1 and 6-4, 6-4 respectively at No. 3 and No. 4.  Those wins each followed a UTEP win that tied the match, first at 1-1 and then at 2-2.

Up 3-2, Natasha Munday looked to be on the wrong end of a quick second set, losing the first 6-4 and trailing 5-2 and 30-love, but she bounced all the way back to get it to 5-5 and eventually a tiebreaker, but her opponent Erandi Martinez bested her 7-4 in the tiebreak.  That evened the match at 3-3, but Chen at the time had just taken a 3-0 lead, setting the stage for the wild ending.

New Mexico now hosts both Utah State and Boise State this weekend on Saturday (USU) and Sunday (BSU) with both matches at 1 p.m.  Fans will have to purchase tickets to enter due to the multiple events taking place with Lobo baseball and softball also at home.  UNM also hosts matches at 9:30 each morning with Air Force taking on Boise State on Saturday and Air Force taking on Utah State on Sunday.

NOTES:  Kageyama’s win at No. 4 singles made UNM 7-1 at that position this season … Danielle Quevedo missed the match and most likely will not be available over the weekend … Sunday will be senior day for UNM Natasha Munday and Hsuan Huang are 4-0 as a doubles team at No. 1 doubles … UNM is now 35-1 all-time against UTEP.