Lobos Blitz NAU

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico stayed scorching hot, winning a fourth straight match and once again looking every bit like a nationally-ranked team with an easy 6-1 win over Northern Arizona.  The Lobos moved to 8-5 overall while Northern Arizona, the first place team in the Big Sky, dropped to 11-7 and saw its five-match winning streak end.

UNM cruised to the clinch in well under two hours, taking the doubles point in a 2-0 sweep.  Sixth-seventh ranked Aram Noroozian and Georgio Samaha earned the clinching point with a 6-3 win at No. 1 doubles, teamming with No. 2 doubles Daniil Kakhniuk and Nicolas Recoura, who won 6-2.

From there is was easy as UNM took five of six opening sets to dicate play.  Noroozian, who is on the cusp of being ranked in singles, won against at No. 1, taking a 6-3, 6-1 win over Dani Torres for a 2-0 lead.  That was quickly followed by wins by Kakhniuk (6-2, 6-0 over Jakub Volesky at No. 5) and Samaha (6-2, 6-2 over Takumi Katsudo at No. 4) to clinch the win.

Everything was played out, and Avery Tallakson stayed hot with his seventh straight win, taking a 6-3, 7-5 win at No. 6 singles over Mati Lange.  Aditya Balsekar won prior to that at No. 2 singles winning 6-2, 6-0 over Piotr Galus as UNM led 6-0 before NAU got a point with a win at No. 3 singles 6-2, 6-4.

The Lobos stay home for another day, taking on UTSA on Sunday at 11 am at McKinnon Family Tennis Stadium.

NOTES:  Noroozian and Kakhniuk remain tied for the team lead with 17 singles wins, and Noroozian and Tallakson each won their seventh straight … Samaha won his 76th career match, putting him one behind Javier Gutierrez for 13th on the all-time list … Noroozian won his 62nd, and he is one away from tying Bart Van Leijsen for 30th on the all-time list.