ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — For the No. 55-ranked Univeristy of New Mexico men’s tennis team, their goal this week is pretty simple as the head to the Arizona State 8-Team Tournament for a second striaght year. That goal? Rewrite the past.
The Lobos head to Tempe to take on the University of Idaho in the opening road of the ASU 8-Team Tournament at 1 p.m. in Tempe at the Kiwanis Tennis Center. The Lobos on Saturday will take on either UNLV or New Mexico State. Sunday’s finale will be against one of Loyola Marymount, No. 32 Arizona State, Nevada or Utah State.
Last year, the Lobos were riding high heading to Tempe on a five-match winning streak with a 5-2 overall record, and promptly lost all three matches in Tempe, starting a 6-match losing skid. Those losses came against No. 34 Memphis, South Florida and Utah State.
While the team won’t be able to go all Doc Brown and make last year’s tournament “erase … from existence …”, the team can certainly write a much better chapter. The Lobos are coming off a 4-3 loss to Utah, its only setback of the season. The Lobos have a pair of true road wins at New Mexico State 6-1 and BYU 4-3, and had a week off prior to the tournament.
The Lobos to this point have gotten great Springs from Georgio Samaha and Ryomo Matsushita, who are both 4-1 in the dual season. Those two have helped UNM anchor the bottom half of its ladder as UNM is 4-1 at No. 4 singles, No. 5 singles and No. 6 singles. The Lobos have also gotten Aram Noroozian back on the right side of the ledger, entering the weekend on a three-match winning streak after losing his opening two of the Spring.
UNM also has a winning record in doubles, but where the team overall is 20-10 in dual singles matchers (.667), its just 7-5 (.583) in doubles.
The Vandals enter the match 3-3 on the season, coming off a 6-1 loss at Denver. Idaho has wins over Seattle and Eastern Washington (both 6-1) and Utah State (5-2) and losses to Boise State and Gonzaga (both 6-1)
NOTES: Fans wanting to watch via stream this weekend need to download the PDF instructions in order to watch the matches.