Lobos Open MW Play Friday with UNLV
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — That 11-1 non-conference record? Awesome. Ten straight wins to open the season? Unreal with some of the tense 4-3 wins. Now for UNM’s women’s tennis team … time to put that in the past. It’s Mountain West time.
Finally, UNM will open not just conference play, but conference play at home with a balanced schedule of five home matches and five on the road as the silly little pod system where some teams never played a home match is gone. New Mexico over the past few years has played more conference matches in Colorado Springs than in Albuquerque. Instead, UNM gets to open Mountain West play with a pair of home matches, hosting UNLV on Friday at 11:30 am and Colorado State on Sunday at 11 am. Due to NMAA Basketball at the Pit on Friday, fans are asked to park in the Pit West located just north of McKinnon.
Both matches will be streamed and will have live scoring available for fans who can’t make it out to McKinnon Family Tennis Stadium.
The Lobos enter at 11-1 and they are coming off a tight match with New Mexico State, a 4-2 win. Much like wins vs. Gonzaga and Eastern Washington, it was Leonie Hoppe with the clinching victory, bouncing back from a second-set loss to win 6-1 in the third and end any drama.
Where UNM has excelled in the spring is really in doubles, where the squad is 25-4 overall in doubles and 18-2 in the last nine matches as UNM has taken the doubles point 11 of 12 times.
That’s not to say UNM is shabby in singles. Nope, UNM is pretty good there too as the team is 44-19 overall (.698) in the spring.
Maud Vandeputte has been on a tear in the spring with a combined 10-2 record, going 7-1 at No. 4 and 3-1 at No. 3. Hsuan Huang, who did not play singles last weekend and just won her 60th career doubles match, is 6-1 in the spring.
Hoppe is 8-2 playing in three slots for UNM, giving UNM plenty of options and range within the lineup. The Lobos have also been buoyed by Sarah O’Connor, who is 5-5 at No. 1 singles this season.
For UNLV, the Rebels enter at 6-4, and like CSU, it has lost two straight. UNLV is coming off losses to NAU 4-3 and Rice 4-0. The Rebels do have a 7-0 win over New Mexico State and won six straight sandwiched around two two-game losing skids. Salsa Asher is 7-2 in the spring to lead the Rebs.
Colorado State is currently 4-5 on the year and like UNLV is coming off back-to-back losses to Colorado and No. 62 Grand Canyon. The only common thread schedule-wise between the two is each team hosted Northern Arizona, with UNM winning 4-3 and CSU winning 5-2. Zara Lennon has led the way in the spring with a 5-2 record. CSU plays at Air Force on Friday.