The Lobo women’s tennis team earned a split in Salt Lake City, Utah over the weekend, breaking through to win its first game of the season.
Head coach Stephanie Wooten-Quijada took over the team in the fall, and said she was excited to pick up the first team victory of the spring.
“It felt really good, I think it was well-deserved,” she said. “The girls had been right on the cusp of pulling out one of those close matches, and we did it, so that was nice.”
New Mexico (1-5) played Utah on Friday as the first-year head coach of UNM faced her former head coach, Mat Iandolo, when she was a player for Purdue.
The Lobos got off to a rocky start, losing the first two matches in doubles play, which spotted Utah a 1-0 lead. The Utes were also well ahead in the third doubles match when the point was clinched.
Senior Rachana Bhat evened things up by defeating Utah’s Whitney Turley, taking a straight-set victory, 6-0, 7-5.
Utah responded by taking the next two singles matches, and the Lobos needed a win on court one to keep hope alive. But Ludivine Burguiere could not close things out after winning the second set to force a decisive third set.
She was defeated by Margo Pletcher, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, which clinched the victory for Utah.
The teams elected to finish playing the remaining two matches, with each school taking one victory. Freshman Cassie Chung staved off Taylor Calton to win, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, but Andrea Leblanc fell in a thrilling three set match.
Utah walked away with a 5-2 team victory.
Wooten-Quijada said she had faced Iandolo before when she was at Houston, and has appreciated his guidance during her coaching career.
“Mat is an awesome person. If (our team) had won, he would’ve been happy for me,” she said. “He cares about his student-athletes on and off the court, and that’s how he treated me—so I think he’s helped mold my coaching philosophy.”
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The Lobos also got a chance to compete against former UNM and current Wisconsin head coach, Kelcy McKenna.
UNM failed to pick up the doubles point again on Saturday against the Badgers, despite all three matches being very close.
But digging an early hole didn’t seem to phase New Mexico, as the team broke through in singles play.
Wooten-Quijada said the team is still trying to iron out some things in doubles pairings, but wasn’t surprised at all to see the women respond.
She said the team is very confident in the ability to compete in singles, and knew that if they played hard, they would have a good day.
Burguiere, Chung and Bhat each compiled straight set victory to earn points and shift momentum, putting UNM within one point, 3-1, of its first team victory of the season.
The head coach said she gave Chung a lot of credit for staying on serve and winning the big points when she needed to.
New Mexico needed to win just one of the three remaining singles matches, and appeared to have a firm handle on two of them.
Leblanc was embroiled in a tightly contested match, but dashed any chance at a Badger comeback by closing things out strong.
She executed down the stretch to take a straight set victory over Kelcy Grambean, 6-4, and secure the win for the Lobos.
The teams again played out the remaining two matches, with each school winning one, resulting in a 5-2 team victory for UNM’s first win this spring.
New Mexico will travel to Arizona to face Cincinnati and Arizona on Feb. 24 and 25, respectively.
Robert Maler is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers football and men’s and women’s tennis. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @robert_maler.
