Univ. of New Mexico Team Page
The University of New Mexico men’s tennis team lost its second tough match to No. 22 Boise State 4-3 for the second in a week. This is the second straight match against each other and the second one to end on the final point.
With the dual tied 3 all, freshman Joe Wood battled Eric Roberson, ranked No. 65, in the No. 6 spot of the line-up. Wood fought to win the second set 6-4 to stay alive after dropping the first 6-4. In the third set, Wood and to take several breaks but he continued to give it his all to tie the set at 6 sending the match to a tie-breaker. The Lobo freshman got the first two points but couldn’t hold off Roberson. The Broncos won the set, match and dual all by 3 tie-breaker points.
Senior Chris Parkes gave New Mexico one of its three points with his third win of the season. Chris Parkes is undefeated this year and 7-4 overall in singles. He defeated Steve Robertson 6-3, 6-1 after stepping up a spot to No. 3.
Junior Graeme Kassautzki gave the Lobos their first point when he upset No. 69 Brent Werbeck 6-3, 6-2 at No. 4 in the line-up.
Senior Max Jones, ranked No. 35, won his first match of the New Year. Jones lost the first set to No. 19 Clancy Shields but came to win the match 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. He is now 6-3 this season. Jones also earned a win in doubles with partner Kamil Pajkowski against Piotr Dilaj and Luke Shields. The Lobos pair is ranked No. 48 and won the match 8-3.
The two teams met last Saturday in the finals of the Mountain Region Indoor Championship. That match also went down to the wire and the Broncos came out victorious 4-3 on their home court.
New Mexico head coach, Alan Dils commented: “If we play that hard as a team every match, we will win a lot of tough matches this year. We gave an unbelievable effort and it was an incredible match. We had a great crowd to cheer us on. I am sorry that the guys [Lobos] lost because they put everything they had into it against a very good team.”
The Lobos fall to 1-2, with their only losses coming against Boise State. Next up is a Tennessee road trip where they will play Vanderbilt on Feb 7th and Middle Tennessee State on the 9th. Next time the Lobos are home, they will face three opponents in two days. Northern Arizona gets things started with doubles on Feb. 15th. Then after playing Denver and Oregon, NAU finishes things with singles.
Boise State improves to 5-0 on the season.
Bronco head coach, Greg Patton said, “Every match we play with UNM it goes down to the wire. The right thing to have happened tonight was for the Lobos to win because they played tough.”
