Lobos Look to Stay Perfect Hosting NAU
NOTE: UNM’s match with Abilene Christian on Sunday at 11 am has been postponed and will not be played.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Lobos are off to their best start in 26 years. They got there with a three-match sweep on the road in Spokane, beating a pair of quality teams in Seattle and Gonzaga by 4-3 scores, and a 4-1 win over Eastern Washington. Now, UNM will look to keep it going with a Friday matchup hosting Northern Arizona at noon. New Mexico’s originally scheduled Sunday match with Abilene Christian, slated on Sunday at 11 am has been postponed. UNM will be working with Abilene Christian to attempt to reshcedule for a later date.
The best part of UNM’s 5-0 start … an opponent never quite knows where UNM will strike from. The only certainty has been Hsuan Huang, who is not just 5-0 in the spring but has won eight straight dating back to last November. Huang had one clincher on the weekend and she has not lost a set over the eight-match winning streak.
Despite scoring no more than four points over the weekend in any one match, UNM got at least one singles win from everyone in the lineup, and at least one doubles win from all three teams. UNM has been very efficient, winning the doubles point in all five matches, and going 11-2 in doubles so far. Five Lobos have double-digit wins in doubles. Maud and Bente Vandeputte have 12 wins in doubles (most of those as a tandem), Leonie Hoppe has 11, Maria Sodre has 11 and Katherine Jhang has 10.
In singles, UNM is 22-7 in the spring, with a winning record in every flight. While Huang is 5-0, both Vandeputtes are 4-1 and No. 1 player Sarah O’Connor is sitting at 3-2.
Northern Arizona is sitting at 1-1 and the Lumberjacks will be looking for revenge for a 4-3 Lobos victory. That win last year for UNM was one of two wins over nationally ranked wins as NAU was ranked 64. That win came down to a match between Leonie Hoppe and Pat Niewiadomska. That was a wild match that featured a pair of tiebreakers with the first going to Hoppe 9-7 and the second to Niewiadomska 7-5. After that it was all Hoppe with Hoppe winning 6-0 in the final set, giving UNM the win.