Lobos Sweep Air Force and NMSU in Shutout Fashion
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A clearly focused and somewhat possessed New Mexico Lobo men’s tennis team could have sliced through a boulder with a butter knife on Saturday. That was the laser-like precsion that UNM showed in sweeping a doubleheader on Saturday, handing the Air Force Falcons a 7-0 defeat before returning to the court later in the evening and handing New Mexico State a 4-0 shutout loss.
The pair of wins moved UNM to 13-8 overall and 3-1 in the Mountain West. Air Force fell to 6-12 overall and 1-4 in the league, and New Mexico State dropped to 8-12. UNM has one regular season match left, hosting Boise State on Saturday at noon for Senior Day. UNM does have a rained out match with UNLV sitting in the troposphere somewhere, but there has not been a decision, or a directive, on if that match will be made up or not, which could be of major importance.
None of that mattered on Saturday as of UNM’s nine active players, eight won a singles match with only Georgio Samaha winning against both AFA and NMSU. Arda Azkara, Arthur Bellegy, Aram Noroozian, Rafael Abdulsalam and Alex Maggs won against Air Force, and Ryoma Matsushita and Nicolas Recoura won against New Mexico State. Noroozian was two points away from a win against NMSU, and both Avery Tallakson and Bellegy were two games from victory as well. It was as dominating a day as a team could have.
Against Air Force, the Lobos took two of three doubles matches for the opening point before hammering out 12 winning sets in singles. Azkara moved to a perfect 24-0 at home all-time at No. 1 singles with a simple 6-1, 6-1 win. That was his 19th win of the season, and Arthur Bellegy also picked up his 19th with a 6-3, 6-0 win at No. 2. Georgio Samaha’s 20th of the season made it 5-0 after Alex Maggs had a 6-1, 6-2 win for his 16th win of the year.
Rafael Abdulsalam won 6-4, 6-4 and Aram Noroozian won 7-5, 6-2 to complete the noon sweep. In the nightcap UNM swept the doubles point, with the clinching point coming from a wild shot by Matsushita who bent a drop shot around the doubles pole and just inside the back line for the win.
Playing to the clinching point, there was a pretty good race to get everything in and see who could win in time. The only real drama was would UNM lose a set, and that ended in the first when Noroozian fought off two set points in a tiebreak to win 9-7. Recoura and Matsushita, both trailing 3-0 in the opening set, bounced back to win. After Samaha won his 21st with a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 3 singles, Recoura won 6-4, 6-4. His match turned when even at 3-3 but up 40-love, he raced back after a Luca Fe D’Ostiani lob and spun around and hit a wicked forehand that Fe D’Oistiani could only watch sail past him. That made it 6-4 and Recoura cruised home from there.
Matsushita finished off his match at 7-5, 6-1 to just beat Noroozian to the clinch.
Now, UNM will watch the scoreboard tomorrow as UNLV takes on Utah State, with UNM rooting for a Rebel win. Assuming the UNLV match is not made up, UNM needs for Utah State to either lose to UNLV Sunday in Logan, or in San Diego next Saturday to SDSU. Either of those happens, coupled with a Lobo win over Boise State would give UNM at least a share of the Mountain West title and the No. 1 seed and a bye in the MW Tournament in two weeks.
On Saturday the 20th, UNM will host Boise State on Senior Day as Matsushita, Abdulsalam and Maggs will play in their final home matches as Lobos.
NOTES: Samaha moved into a tie for 27th on the all-time singles wins list with 64, tying with Conor Berg and Mitch McDaniels, with Coulter Wright and Kamil Pajkowski next up at 65 wins … Azkara’s win pushed him to 19-3 on the season … Recoura is now 9-3 in singles.