Lobo Drop First Match of the Year, 4-2 to ACU
ABILENE, Texas — The Lobo women’s tennis team fought tooth and nail, and in a close match, the Lobos fell to host Abilene Christian 4-2, suffering its first defeat of the year. The Lobos will remain in Abilene to take on Tyler Junior College at 11 a.m. Mountain Time on Saturday.
The match hinged on the doubles point, which went to Abilene in a nailbiter. The Lobos got a quick wstart on winning it with a 6-0 whitewashing at No. 2 doubles by Maud Vandeputte and Hsuan Huang over Maria Cascos and Maryjoe Crisologo, but the other two matches went down to the wire, in favor of ACU.
At No. 1 doubles, Leonie Hoppe and Katherine Jhang fell 6-3 to Masha Vrsalovic and Olivia Sears, just the second loss of the year for the tandem (the other being in the Round of 16 of the ITA Fall Championships). It all fell to No. 3 doubles, where UNM’s Sarah O’Connor and Maria Sodre couldn’t cash in on four match points, eventually losing 7-6 (7-5). That gave ACU a 1-0 lead, and that would turn out to be huge.
The Wildcast (5-5) took four opening sets of singles, and it looked like they might run away with things, but that wasn’t remotely the case. Crisologo beat Hoppe at No. 2 singles for a 2-0 lead, but Jhang was able to bounce back at No. 3 singles for a 6-3, 6-2 win to make it 2-1. Eva Arrenz for the Wildcats took a straight set win at No. 6 over Maria Sodre, and the Wildcasts were within one.
Vandeputte continued her torrid play with a 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-5) win at No.4 to make it 3-2. UNM’s Huang was up 5-7, 6-4, 4-3 meaning a win at No. 1 could give the match to UNM, but it wasn’t meant to be. Sarah O’Connor, who was 3-0 at No. 1 entering, nearly pulled off a nice comeback, but lost 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, clinching the match for ACU.
NOTES: Vandeputte’s win was her team-leading 13th of the season … UNM dropped to 17-3 in singles in the Spring season.