Men's Tennis Edges Wichita State 4-3
WICHITA, Kan. — Arda Azkara bounced back from an opening set loss to win in three sets and Aram Noroozian came back from a 5-3 deficit in the second set to win in a tiebreaker 7-5 to extend UNM’s winning streak to five straight with a 4-3 win over Wichita State, pushing UNM to 6-2 on the season and dropping the Shockers to 2-5. The score was 4-1 at the time of the clinch, but the match was played out to a full conclusion.
If there was any doubt this match would be tight, doubles proved it. All three doubles matches went to tiebreakers. Needing two of three, the Lobos got a pair of wins. Nicolas Recoura and Georgio Samaha won 7-5 in a tiebreaker at No. 2 doubles over Vanja Hodzic and Alejandro Jacome and Ryoma Matsushita and Avery Tallakson won 7-3 in their tiebreaker at No. 3 over Ziwen Ju and Marcelo Sepulveda to give UNM a 1-0 lead.
They needed it as in singles, usually, UNM’s strong suit, the Lobos faltered early as Azkara lost his opening set at No. 1, Arthur Bellegy did likewise at No. 3, as did Georgio Samaha at No. 4 and Rafael Abdulsalam at No. 5. Only Noroozian and Alex Maggs turned in a first set win, with Noroozian at 6-4 and Maggs at 6-3. Needing a third-set win somewhere along the line, UNM got it from Azkara.
With the match 2-1 after Alex finished off Ju 6-3, 6-4 but Bellegy lost 6-4, 6-3 to end his six-match winning streak, Azkara bounced back from a 6-2 opening set to dominate Jacome completely. He would blister Jacome by winning 12 of the final 14 games winning 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 for the sixth straight win for the country’s No. 122nd-ranked player.
Up 3-1, Noroozian had a chance to effectively end the drama, but he trailed in his second set 5-3 while Samaha and Abdulsalam also trailed. He was able to avoid a third set, getting a key break to stay in the set, and eventually pushing it to a tiebreaker, where Noroozian clinched the match with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) win.
With the match decided, Samaha saw his 10-match winning streak end with a 7-5, 6-4 loss, and Abdulsalam forced a third set, but he lost the third-set 10-point tiebreaker, making the final 4-3.
UNM takes on UTSA in Wichita tomorrow at noon Mountain Time.
NOTES: New Mexico has not been outscored in singles this season … UNM is 6-0 when winning the doubles point and 0-2 when losing it.