Lobos Nipped by Idaho 4-3 in Tempe

TEMPE, Ariz. — The No. 55 New Mexico Lobos for the second straight match fell 4-3, this time to the Idaho Vandals in the opening round of the ASU 8-Team Tournament, dropping UNM into a losers bracket semifinal match against a familiar foe in New Mexico State.  New Mexico dropped to 4-2 on the season andsuffered its second straight loss while Idaho moved to 4-3 and will play UNLV.

UNM and New Mexico State, which met three weeks ago on February 4, will play at 1 p.m. in Tempe.  The Lobos in that meeting lost the doubles point and then swept all six singles matches for a 6-1 win.

UNM lost the doubles point to open the match, falling at Nos. 2 and 3.  At No. 3 doubles, the tandem of Georgia Samaha and Rafael Abdulsalam fell 6-3 to Taiyo Kurata and Francisco Gay while UNM’s Arda Azkara and Aram Noroozian lost 6-4 at No. 2 to Bruno Casino and Alex Asenov.  That sent the match to doubles, where it was tight throughout.

The teams split the first four singles matches, with UNM getting wins at No. 5 as Ryomo Matsushita won 6-3, 6-4 over Kurata, and that made it 1-1.  Azkara lost to Bascon 7-6, 6-2 at No. 1 to give Idaho the lead at 2-1, but Samaha won at No. 6, going to a pair of tiebreaks over Mario Duron 7-6, 7-6.

Tied at two apiece, the final three matches all went to three sets.  Idaho took a 3-2 lead when Casino beat Nikolay Sysoev 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.  Needing both final matches, UNM got one when Aram Noroozian continued his torrid streak with a come-from-behind 6-7, 6-4, 6-1 win at No. 4, but UNM couldn’t close it.  After Abdulsalam forced a third set with a tiebreak win over Gay, he lost the third set 6-0 to give the match to Idaho.

NOTES:  UNM’s 4, 5, and 6 section of the lineup is a combined 15-3 in singles … Samaha’s win was his team-best 13th singles win.