The University of Oregon outlasted the UNM men's tennis team 4-3 in a hotly contested match at the Lobo Tennis Club Sunday.
The match was not decided until the final set as the Lobos (6-5) squandered early opportunities to put the match away.
UNM got off to a blazing start in the doubles matches to take the point. The number one team of Bart Scott and Michael Polasek got UNM rolling with an easy 8-2 win over Oregon's Mark Pawlowski and Jason Menke. At the number two position, Ryan Stotland and Brent Salazar defeated Oded Teig and Sven Swimmen 8-3, while the number three team of David Kowalski and Divan Coetzee blasted Oregon's Marcel Kost and Chris King 8-1.
"We wanted to pump it up," Salazar said. "We expected to win the doubles, but they're pretty tough in singles," he said before the solo matches got under way.
His words would turn out to ring true, as the Ducks took four out of the six singles matches.
The Lobos looked to be in the driver's seat as Scott took a decisive victory at the number three spot 6-4, 6-1 over Menke, and Coetzee and John Kowalski both won the first set of their matches.
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Coetzee held a one set advantage over Kost at the number one singles position, and was ready to serve out the match when Kost rallied, helped by some questionable calls. He led 6-5, with three set points before Coetzee fought back to take the set into a tiebreaker. Kost started the tiebreak strong, winning the first three points, but Coetzee composed himself and finished him off to win the match 6-3, 7-6. Kost was nearly penalized after the match when he lost his composure and flung his racquet across the court into the side of the bubble. Kost's reaction prompted shouts from the Lobos and their fans to "respect the bubble."
With one more singles win, the Lobos would be on their way to victory, but they couldn't put any of the subsequent matches away.
John Kowalski lost 7-5 in a tight second set before succumbing in the third to King 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 at the number five spot.
At the number two position, Polasek never seemed to be able to get on track as he lost 6-3, 6-1 to Teig. Polasek seemed to be bothered by some early close line calls and his service was inconsistent, double-faulting six times and was forced to take something off of his second serve, which Teig capitalized on.
David Kowalski experienced similar problems at the number four position, dropping a 6-2, 6-3 decision to Swimmen that left the match tied at three with only the number six spot still undecided.
The Lobos' Diego Garza controlled the rubber match early over Greg Dubourdica, winning the first set 7-6. The two went back and forth in the two deciding sets before Dubourdica was able to maintain his momentum after winning the second set, and served out the match for a 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 win to give the Ducks the edge.
"I can't be all negative about this match," head coach Alan Dils said. "These guys tried hard. We let some mental things get away from us; if we hold on, then maybe it's a different story. In some cases, we kind of beat ourselves. I didn't feel like they had to hit enough winners to beat us."
Next up for the Lobos is a trip to Hawaii Friday when they play three matches against the University of Hawaii, Navy and Radford University.
