Lobos Go 7-0, Place Four in Finals

LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Four Lobos advanced to the finals and UNM went a perfect 7-0 on the day to improve to 17-3 in singles at the Aggie Invitational in Las Cruces.  Yue Lin “Polly” Chen, Hsian-Wen “Albie” Huang, Satoho Toriumi and Myu Kageyama all advanced to the finals, giving UNM four of the six possible slots.

In the Crimson bracket, UNM went 3-0.  Chen had the big win with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) victory over No. 1 seeded Harsha Challa of NMSU.  She will face Maryjoe Crisologo of Abilene Christian in the final on Sunday.  In the backside of the bracket, both Sanna Schalekamp and Hsuan Huang won matches.  Schalekamp won 7-5, 6-3 over Kathleen Percegona and Hsuan won 6-4, 6-2 over Ileana  Mocciola.  The two are set to face each other, but they won’t play that match.

In the White bracket, Kageyama took of New Mexico State’s Bhargavi Kalaga  7-5, 6-2 and she advances to the finals against Mingfang Lisa Zhu, also of NMSU.  On the backside Sarah O’Connor won 6-4, 6-1 over Johanna Lutz.

In the Gray Bracket, UNM has both finalists as Toriumi beat UTEP’s Lyric Bonilla 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) and Albie Huang beat UTEP’s Laura Schmitz 6-4, 6-0.  They will play that championship flight match.

In doubles, all three Lobo teams won their Round of 16 matchups, but fell in the quarterfinals.

In the Gray bracket, Albie Huang lost three games the entire day.  She blitzed Samantha Salim of Arizona Christian 6-0, 6-0 and then handled ACU’s Paula Garrote with ease 6-2, 6-1, setting up a meeting with unseeded Laura Schmitz of UTEP.  Opposite her in the top half of the bracket, Toriumi also went 2-0, almost as easily.  Toriumi beat Arizona Christian’s Emma Troyer 6-1, 6-0.  Her quarterfinal match was tougher, but she handled Bissola Lassissi of NMMI 7-5, 6-2.  She will face unseeded Lyric Bonilla of UTEP, who beat the top seeded Bella Nguyen in three sets.  Huang will face UTEP’s Laura Schmitz, also unseeded.

In the White Bracket, Kageyama defeated Johanna Lutz of Arizona Christian 6-2, 6-1 and then topped Elena DiBattista of UTEP 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, setting up a semifinal showdown with NMSU’s Bhargavi Kalaga.  UNM’s other freshman Sarah O’Connor lost her debut, falling in the match of the day, a 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 13-11 barn-burner to NMMI’s Manuella Eloundou Nga.

Action continues on Saturday in Las Cruces, with the final day on Sunday.