Lobos Drop 4-2 Decision to No. 22 Texas Tech

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — For the fifth time this year, the New Mexico Lobos gave a nationally-ranked team everything it could handle.  Unfortunately for UNM, the Lobos fell just short for the fifth time.  This time UNM took the doubles point but couldn’t convert that into a match win, felling 4-2 to No. 22 Texas Tech.

The match ended UNM’s non-conference schedule at 2-8, with five of those losses to national-ranked foes Denver, Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon and Texas Tech.

The Lobos took the doubles point in a thriller.  Stepan Holis and Alex Maggs easily dispatched Francisco Vittar and Isaac Arevalo at No. 3 singles for a quick 1-0 lead.  Texas Tech evened it at 1-1 with a 7-5 win at No. 2 doubles as Dimitrios Azoidis and Ilgiz Valiev took down Jake Trondson and Raul Dobai.

However, UNM’s No. 1 doubles team of Sergio Molina and Dominic West won a tiebreaker 7-5 over Parker Wynn and Franco Ribero to give UNM a 1-0 lead.

In singles, Texas Tech tied it 1-1 as Azoidis defeated Molina 6-1, 6-4 at No. 4 singles, but UNM got that point right back.  Raul Dobai took care of business at No. 2 singles, winning 6-3, 6-3 over Valiev, giving UNM a 2-1 lead.

Parker Wynn defeated West 6-3, 6-0 at No. 1 singles to tie the match at 2-2 and then the Red Raiders went up 3-2 with a close match at No. 6 singles.  Francisco Vittar won 7-5, 7-5 over Jake Trondson.

UNM still had a chance as the other two final matches were in third sets, but UNM couldn’t get over the hump.  Isaac Arevalo defeated Rafael Abdulsalam 6-7, 6-1, 6-2 to give Tech the 4-2 lead.  Stepan Holis was down but on serve at 6-7, 6-3, 4-5 when the match ended.

UNM now heads to conference play, starting on Thursday with an 11 a.m. match at McKinnon Family Tennis Stadium against Fresno State.

NOTES: West won his 53rd doubles match, moving him three away from the top-30 all-time at UNM in doubles wins … UNM is 15-10 this season in doubles.