Lobos Earn Second Win with 4-3 Triumph Over Louisiana
EUGENE, Ore. — New Mexico’s Aditya Balsekar clinched an eventual 4-3 victory over Louisiana with a come-from-behind win at No. 4 singles as the Lobos took four singles matches after losing the doubles point. The win moved UNM to 2-3 on the season while Louisiana dropped to 4-4. The Lobos have Sunday off before heading down the round for a final match of the road trip taking on Portland at 9 am on Monday.
The Lobos needed four singles wins as they lost the doubles point for fourth time in five matches. UNM did get another win from the nationally-ranked No. 1 team of Aram Noroozian and Georgio Samaha, who are ranked No. 49 and won 6-1 at No. 1 doubles. However UNM couldn’t get a win on the other two courts, losing 6-2 and 6-4 in those matches. The second match, a 6-4 win for Vasil Dimitrov and Calin Postea at No. 3 doubles gave the Ragin’ Cajuns a 1-0 lead.
The first six opening sets of singles were split down the middle at 3-3, giving Louisiana a leg up. The top two slots were split, with Noroozian winning 6-1, 6-1 at No. 1 but Samaha losing 6-1, 6-4 to Oriol Fillat Gimenez at No. 2 singles to take a 2-1 lead, but UNM went to work from there. Avery Tallakson put away a straight set win 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) to even the match. The final three matches were all in third sets.
Daniil Kakhniuk won his match at No. 3 singles 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 to give UNM a lead. That meant a match win for UNM with a Balkesar win or a Dario Ciobotaru win, and it was Balsekar, who rebounded from a dropped first set for a 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 win over Postea, giving the win to UNM. The final match was finished out, and Ciobotaru lost i a tight one, falling to Samuel Kyhaci 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (7-5).
NOTES: UNM’s singles wins at 1, 3, 4, and 6 mirror the four singles wins in the Lobos’ first win of the season, at UT Arlington … Noroozian and Kakhniuk moved to a team-best 11 singles wins on the year … Noroozian and Samaha are 7-0 in their last eight matches, with the lone unfinished match in there a 5-3 lead and at set point … the pair is 10-3 on the year.