Staff Report
The UNM men's tennis team started its season in Las Cruces at the Aggie Invitational this weekend.
Tournament play opened on Friday at NMSU, where three Lobos went undefeated in singles competition against NMSU, Texas Tech and Northern Arizona University.
Senior Divan Coetzee defeated the Aggies' Spence Peoples 6-2, 6-1 in the round of 32 before taking out Bojan Szumanski of Texas Tech 6-2, 6-2 in the round of 16.
Junior Ryan Stotland beat Texas Tech's Teddy Diblasi 6-4, 6-2 and NAU's Brian Grooms 6-4, 6-1.
Lobo freshman Hiroud Akhavan earned his first collegiate victory with a 6-4, 7-5 win over NMSU's Luis Avila. Akhavan also defeated Rodney Vickers of Texas Tech later in the afternoon 6-1,6-3.
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Also notching wins for the Lobos in the round of 32 were senior Jasmin Hodzic, junior David Kowalski and sophomores Eric Conklin and Nick Ames.
By Saturday, two UNM singles players and one doubles team remained undefeated.
Coetzee and Stotland each won both of their Saturday matches, taking turns defeating the Red Raiders' Dimitrio Martinez and Michael Innerbner.
After Akhavan overcame Texas Tech's Jakob Paulsen 6-4, 7-6, he fell to Danilo Zivanovic of NMSU in three sets 2-6, 7-5, 7-5.
In doubles action Stotland and David Kowalski defeated Texas Tech's Rodney Vicker and Ryan Vogal.
The team finished the tournament with some impressive records after Sunday's matches. Two Lobo singles players and one doubles team finished with perfect 5-0 records, while three other singles and one doubles team had only one loss each.
Coetzee capped the tournament with a 6-0, 6-0 sweep over Zivanovic on Sunday.
Stotland also won his last match against Avila for the Aggies 6-4, 7-5.
Stotland and junior Kowalski are 5-0 after defeating the Aggies. Zivanovic and Tyler Lyon fell to the Lobos 8-4.
UNM will return to play on Sept. 26 at the HEB Baylor Invitational in Waco Texas.
