Lobos Open MW Play at Home
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Non-conference play is over, and now the UNM Lobos are ready to open up Mountain West play, and they will do so at home against Air Force and Nevada on Friday and Sunday respectively. The Lobos will open the weekend on Friday at noon against Air Force, and then host Nevada on Sunday at 11:30 am. In between, Air Force and Nevada will take on each other in a neutral site match on Saturday.
For fans that cannot make it out to McKinnon Family Tennis Stadium, the weekend will see the debut of live video streaming at McKinnon, as fans can log into www.golobos.com/watchtennis. Fans will be able to selected any court they want to watch, giving the viewer a chance to play director, watching any of the three doubles matches or six singles matches.
The Lobos enter Mountain West play at 9-3 on the season, and they will open with an Air Force team that is 11-3. While the Falcons have seven non-Division I wins, they do have wins against solid teams in Montana State and Idaho State, and the Falcons nearly knocked down Colorado, losing in a close match 4-2.
New Mexico has been led by Myu Kageyama’s 18 wins on the season, and the team also has a pair of veterans with over 100 career combined wins. Yue Lin “Polly” Chen enters the weekend with 60 singles wins and 42 doubles wins for 102, and Hsiang-Wen “Albie” Huang has 61 singles wins and 56 doubles wins. Huang could move into the top 16 in career doubles wins as she trails Michaela Bezdickova (2010-14) who is 16th with 58 wins.
UNM is coming into the match with a two-match losing streak, falling 4-1 to Santa Clara and 6-1 to San Francisco. Air Force enters the match on a two-week break after beating Idaho State in Pocatello 5-2. The Falcons had lost two in a row prior to that match. The matchup features two teams that have done very well in singles play. The Lobos are 42-17 in singles in the spring while Air Force is 61-18 in singles over the same time frame. The Lobos are a perfect 10-0 at No. 4 singles in the spring, and Air Force is a perfect 13-0 in singles at No. 1. Its similar in doubles as UNM is 26-8 and Air Force is 27-6.
Sunday’s matchup will see the Lobos take on Nevada which enters the weekend 6-3 overall, having won its last two including a 7-0 win over Pacific. Nevada does have a 4-1 win over Santa Clara, a team UNM just played.