Women's Tennis: Lobo notch first double point of season, but fall in home opener

The Lobo women’s tennis team broke through to win its first doubles point of the season in the home opener, but it wasn’t enough as Minnesota came from behind to ruin the homecoming.

New Mexico (1-10) opened the spring season playing 10 straight matches on the road, but came away with just one team victory despite getting close several times.

The team returned to host Minnesota (9-4) and hoped to continue its dominance at home, where UNM went undefeated last season.

Things got off to a good start in doubles competition, even though the Lobos lost the first match. Seniors Rachana Bhat and Dominique Dulski lost three consecutive games and fell 6-3, but Ruth Copas and Cassie Chung bounced back after trailing 2-0 to win their match 6-4 to even things up.

In the final doubles pairing, Emily Olivier and Diana Wong executed beautifully down the stretch to best their opponents. With the score tied 5-5, the duo won a huge no advantage point and closed things out in the following game for a 7-5 win.

The victory awarded New Mexico the lone doubles point and a 1-0 lead for the first time this season.

Head coach Stephanie Wooten-Quijada said she was pleased to see the team pull out the point because Minnesota had some very good doubles pairings. She said the coaching staff considered the Golden Gophers to be one of the best teams they’ve faced in terms of doubles play.

Wong said prior to the match that the team was looking forward to securing the doubles point and hopefully benefit from the momentum that comes from getting it.

“It felt good to have that win with my partner,” Wong said. “We got the doubles point and we’ll be looking for another one (Tuesday).”

Olivier said the final two games of their match were intense and a little nerve racking, but they tried to keep things simple and were able to come out on top.

The win also meant New Mexico only needed to win half of the six singles matches to earn a team victory, but the momentum did not carry over. Dulski and Wong both jumped out to win their first sets, but they were the only two players to do so.

Dulski got off the court quickly, defeating Barbara Mancera in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3 to put UNM up 2-0.

“Dom is a great competitor and she’s been battling multiple injuries this year, so that has kind of hurt her a little bit,” Wooten-Quijada said. “But I think she is back on track, feeling the ball, so it was nice.”

Burguiere also had a fast match, but was on the wrong end of a straight set encounter, falling to Caroline Ryba, 6-2, 6-3.

Wooten-Quijada said Burguiere was also dealing with an injury and had not practiced in a couple of weeks. The head coach said she was proud of Burguiere for gutting it out and finishing the match against a very strong opponent.

Wong answered right back for New Mexico though, avoiding a third set by winning four consecutive games to clinch a 6-4, 6-2 victory. Her win made the team score 3-1 and put the Lobos put one point away from a team win.

“Diana (Wong) really stepped up in doubles and singles,” Wooten-Quijada said. “I think she is gaining a lot of confidence, playing well and finding herself.”

But UNM had dropped the first set in all three of the remaining singles matches and needed to extend at least one of them into a third set to have a shot.

Copas appeared to be in good shape in the second set with the score tied 2-2, but she was ousted after losing four straight games.

Bhat suffered a similar fate minutes later, losing six of the final seven games in her match. She lost 6-4, 6-2 which allowed Minnesota to tie the overall score up at 3-3.

The Lobos caught the break they needed after Chung was able to take her second set to force a third and decisive one for all the marbles.

But she may have expended too much energy along the way as Chung went down a break right away. And the freshman was unable to capitalize on a couple of no-advantage deuce points to get the break back.

Minnesota’s Annemarie Emme eventually outlasted Chung, 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 to give her team the 4-3 win.

Despite the loss, Wooten-Quijada said she was pleased with the overall effort. She said there were so many deuce points that could have gone either way, and the team is close to putting everything together.

“They fought really hard, so I can’t be mad,” the head coach said. “Minnesota played tough on the big points.”

New Mexico will get another opportunity at home to find the win column on Tuesday, as the team hosts Northern Arizona at 1 p.m.

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.