Lobo Comeback Falls Short, 4-3 to Air Force
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico nearly completed a huge comeback, getting come-from-behind three set wins at No. 1 by Maud Vandeputte and No. 2 by Sarah O’Connor, but the Falcons got one of their own after UNM tied it, and Air Force held on for a 4-3 win.
It looked early like Air Force would need no dramatics, winning the doubles point with a pair of wins at No. 2 doubles and No. 3. At two, Sofia Mavor and Shivaani Selvan defeated Maria Sodre and Sarah O’Connor 6-3 and at three, Maya Michalski and Alexis Odom defeated Marika Matsoukatidi and Sofia Taborga 6-2.
In singles, Air Force won four opening sets, with UNM only taking the first set at No. 4 by Sodre and at No. 6 by Taborga. Sodre finished off her win for her third in a row with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Michalski to make it 1-1, but the Falcons also got a straight set win with a 6-4, 6-1 by Arianna Van Houwelin over Matsoukatidi, and UNM was going to have to get a couple of comebacks, and that is just what it did.
The first was by Vandeputte, who stayed perfect at No. 1. She lost the opening set 6-4 after bolting to a 3-0 lead, and it looked like there was no way a comeback would happen, but Vandeputte turned on the jets. Tied 3-3, she won the final three games to get a 6-3 win and force a third set, and she rolled there to the tune of 6-1, making it 2-2, which was short lived when Mavor defeated Coumba Ben Niangadou 7-5, 6-4 to make it 3-2.
O’Connor then evened it with another comeback. She reversed a 6-3 loss in the first with a 6-3 win in the second, and then she broke the serve of Nadia Kojonroj to go up 3-2 and again to 5-2, serving out from there.
That put everything at No. 6, where Sofia Taborga and Selvan were battling. Taborga won the opening set tiebreaker 8-6 despite trailing 2-0, 5-3 and 6-5, and the second set again went to a tiebreaker, but trailing 6-5, Taborga hit just wide to give Selvan the set.
In the third set, the critical point was after a Taborga break gave her a 4-3 lead. Taborga led 40-15 and had Selvan on the ropes, but her passing shot was just wide, giving Selvan a lifeline, which she took. Selvan broke back, held, and then won the match with another break of serve at 30-40, giving the Falcons a 4-3 that took nearly four hours.
