Men's Tennis Downs Utah State 4-2

TEMPE, Ariz. — New Mexico took four singles matches to take down the Utah State Aggies in a non-conference matchup in the backdraw of the ASU 8-Team Tournament in Tempe, Ariz., winning 4-2.  The Lobos will take on New Mexico State, who lost 4-0 to Nevada, at 10 am on Sunday.

The Lobos got singles wins from Arda Azkara, Aram Noroozian, Georgio Samaha and Alex Maggs as the Lobos shuffled its singles lineup.  UNM removed Rafael Abdulsalam, who had been at No. 2 singles, moving everyone up a slot and opening a place for Maggs, who took advantage of the opportunity.  Down a point after falling 2-1 in doubles (the lone win from Maggs and Azkara at No. 1, winning 6-1 over David Cierny and Bodin Zarkovic), Maggs blitzed Javier Ruiz 6-1, 6-2 to get UNM on the board.

While Utah State took a 2-1 lead after Zarkovic beat Nikolay Sysoev 6-1, 6-3 at No. 2 singles, Arda Azkara bounced back into winning form with a solid 6-2, 6-4 win over Cierny to end a three-match losing skid.  From there, that would be it as UNM’s trio of Noroozian, Samaha and Ryoma Matsushita have been on a massive roll.  Noroozian and Samaha entered having won four straight, and both won again to finish the match.

Noroozian improved to 5-2 in the spring and 2-1 at No. 3 with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Stijn Paardekooper, and Samaha clinched it with a 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2 win at No. 5 over Nuno Pinheiro.  That made Samaha a perfect 3-0 at No. 5 singles this season.

NOTES:  Samaha’s win was his team-best 14th of the year … Maggs became the first Lobo to record 10 doubles wins on the year.