Lobos Rout UNLV on Senior Day 4-0

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — On a festive afternoon that featured nearly a thousand fans to watch men’s tennis, softball and baseball play on “Block Party” Sunday, the men’s tennis team made sure its four seniors went out in style at home.  In the process they stayed in the hunt for a potential Mountain West title.

UNM swept doubles and took three straight set matches in single for a convincing 4-0 shutout, a second straight MW shutout and moving the No. 74 Lobos to 12-7 overall and 3-1 in Mountain West play.  UNLV dropped to 7-10 overall and 1-4 in MW play.

It was fitting that the first half of the doubles point came from seniors Aram Noroozian and Georgio Samaha, who smashed their way to a 5-0 lead on the way to a 6-1 win.  The other half of the doubles point came from Nicolas Recoura and the other fourth-year senior in Daniil Kakhniuk.  That made it 1-0, and UNM then took four opening set singles wins.

To start singles, there was tension as UNM took two first sets, UNLV took two first sets, and then two went to tiebreaks.  At No. 2 singles, Aditya Balsekar forced a tiebreaker and then went up 4-0 quickly on the way to a 7-1 win.  At No. 5, Kakhniuk rebounded from a 5-2 deficit to force a tiebreaker as well, and he won his last five points for a 7-3 win. Just like that, UNM had control of the match.

The control was ramped up as when Kakhniuk finished his first set to move all the matches to a second, Avery Tallakson was a game away from a win, which he got 6-4, 6-3 at No. 6 to make it 2-0.  From there, the seniors took over. Samaha, in front of a huge family contingent, started slow, and then caught fire, and his emphatic 6-3, 6-4 win was clinched on a break of serve, fending off two game points.  That made it 3-0, and Balsekar secured the win on a double fault by his opponent for a 7-6 (7-1), 6-2 win.

While Noroozian didn’t pick up a singles win at No. 1 singles, he also didn’t lose, forcing a third set after losing the first set 6-3 and trailing 3-0 in the second before he reeled off six of the final seven games.  That means Noroozian finishes his career unbeaten at home at No. 1 singles, meaning UNM’s streak of matches without a loss at home at No. 1 singles will extend into 2026.  The last such loss was January 23, 2022 when Rafael Abdulsalam lost at No. 1 to Utah.  Since then, UNM has gone 33 consecutive matches with a loss at No. 1 singles.

Now UNM heads to face the two teams ahead of themselves in the standings, starting with a road match against Utah State.  USU is 13-7 overall and 3-1 in conference play, tied with UNM.  Utah State is 6-0 at home this season.  UNM will also need to beat Boise State, which is ranked No. 42 and is 18-4 overall and 4-0 in Mountain West play.  BSU, like Utah State, is unbeaten at home this year, sitting at 8-0.

NOTES: Samaha moved into a tie for ninth with his 81st career win.