PASADENA, Calif. --- The Lobo men’s tennis team battled from start to finish, but No. 10 UCLA was too much and took two doubles matches and three singles matches in straight sets for a 4-0 victory in the opening round of the ITA Kickoff Classic. New Mexico will play Pacific at 11 am Mountain Time on Saturday in the consolation round.
UC Santa Barbara defeated Pacific 4-0 in the other first-round match.
The Lobos hung around in doubles despite UCLA having the Nos. 19 and 47 doubles teams in the country. Carol Labitzke and Jan Skerbatis played in the No. 1 slot against No. 19 Spencer Johnson and Emon van Loben Sels, and they had the match even at 3-3. UCLA held serve and got a break to go up 5-3, winning 6-3.
Alberto Perez and Jakub Pracher lost to No. 47 Rudy Quan and Adarsh Tripathi 6-3. UNM needed to hold one of those two matches as Philip Bosin and Dario Ciobotaru were in a battle with Gianluca Ballotta and Andy Nguyen, sitting at 5-5 when the doubles point was clinched.
In singles, UCLA got three straight set wins to clinch the match. Johnson, ranked No. 75 in singles, took down Pracher, while Cassius Chinlund beat Tyler Waddock, and Bengt Reinhard beat Labitzke.
For UNM, Bosin was in a good match with No. 20 Sels, as he lost the first set 6-3, but was even at 2-2 in the second. Perez won his opening set over Ballotta 6-2 before losing the second, and they were going to a third set, which wasn’t played.