LAS VEGAS, Nev. --- The New Mexico men's tennis team couldn't exact a little revenge for a 4-3 loss in regular season play, losing 4-0 in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Tournament, ending UNM's season and guaranteeing a new tournament champion. The Lobos defeated Boise State 4-0 in last year's finals.
The No. 52 Broncos advance to play No. 2 San Diego State tomorrow in the semifinals and move to 21-8. UNM's season ended at 8-16.
The Broncos swept the doubles point and took the opening set on all six singles matches to take a commanding lead. The Lobos, however, as they did all season long, despite injury or illness, fought back. Dario Ciobotaru forced a third set at No. 1, and Jakub Prachar did the same at No. 4 singles, but it just wasn't enough.
The Broncos made it 2-0 with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Jan Skerbatis, who played in singles for just the second time in over two months due to injury. Tyler Waddock lost 7-6 (7-5), 6-0 to Taiyo Kurata a few weeks after defeating him 7-6 (13-11), 6-1. That made it 3-0, and despite Ciobotaru and Prachar's heroics, it wasn't to be as Philip Bosin lost 6-3, 6-3 to end the match and send BSU to the semifinals.
UNM loses two seniors, Skerbatis and Waddock, from this year's squad.