The UNM men's tennis team shook off the cobwebs from a long winter break this weekend and responded to the tune of impressive victories over the University of San Francisco and Northern Arizona University.
On Saturday, the Lobos started the spring season sweeping San Francisco by a score of 7-0.
UNM earned the doubles point by winning two out of the three doubles matches. The number one and nationally-ranked pair of Ryan Stotland and Brent Salazar got the Lobos started.
The duo played conservatively early on, trading games with the Dons to a score of three games to two. UNM broke USF's serve in the next game building a 4-2 lead. The match would remain tight the rest of the way with both teams holding serve. With the score 7-5 in favor of the Lobos, the Dons had a golden opportunity to jump right back into the match. Salazar was serving and found himself down a break point with the score 30-40. However, USF's return on Salazar's next serve was long and the senior closed out the match by winning the next two points with nearly untouchable serves. UNM held on to the game and ultimately won the match 8-5.
"We were trying to focus on getting the ball into their bodies," Salazar said. "We want to get the speed up and make them reach on their returned serves."
In other doubles action, the second position combo of Bart Scott and Divan Coetzee took on San Francisco's Jon Lippert and Axel Elvik. Scott and Coetzee dominated the match breaking the Dons' serve several times, winning by a final score of 8-2.
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"We started to key in on their serves," Scott said. "That was basically the difference. In doubles, it's serves and returns and whoever does that better is usually going to win."
In what turned out to be the tightest doubles match of the day, the Lobos' team of David Kowalski and Jasmin Hodzic lost to Pablo Pires De Almeida and Jorgen Arnesen 9-8, dropping the tiebreaker 7-4.
In all, UNM head coach Alan Dils was pleased with his team's doubles performance despite the long break between matches.
"When you take some time off, you lose a little bit of your sharpness and mental toughness," he said. "We practiced all week and I think that we competed really well."
In singles competition, UNM continued its domination of the Dons sweeping all six matches.
Scott took on Joachim Lien in a battle of hard hitters at the number one singles position. The match got off to a funky start with both players losing their serve early on. Scott broke Lien in the second game and built an early 2-0 lead. However, Lien fought back to break Scott in the fourth game as he took a 3-2 lead. After that, both players settled in, trading games throughout the rest of the set. With the score tied 6-6, the set went to a tiebreaker. Lien got off to an early 3-2 lead but Scott was able to fight back and take the final five points for a 7-3 tiebreak victory. Scott was forced to a tiebreaker again in the second set and was again successful as he went on to win the match 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-2).
Coetzee kept his opponent off-balance while cruising to a 6-2, 6-3 victory in the second position. Number three Stotland needed a gutsy performance in beating USF's Jorgen Arnesen 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (8-6). In the fourth position Kowalski avenged his doubles loss by trouncing Christian Dyvik 6-0, 6-0. Salazar used his big serve to outlast Mason Fuller by a count of 6-3, 7-6 (9-7) in the fifth position. Hodzic finished out the Lobo onslaught by taking a 6-4, 6-4 victory from Elvik in the sixth and final position.
On Sunday, UNM continued its fine play, blanking Northern Arizona 7-0. It marked the 15th time in 15 tries that the Lobos have beaten the Lumberjacks.
Next up, UNM travels to Seattle, Wash. to battle the University of Washington on Jan. 24. The Lobos' next home match is scheduled for Feb. 14 at the Lobo Tennis Club.
