by Andre van der Merwe
Daily Lobo
The UNM men's tennis team faced off against Air Force on Saturday and left with its first win in Mountain West Conference play.
No. 74 New Mexico (10-6, 1-2 MWC) defeated Air Force (11-7, 0-3 MWC) 6-1 on Senior Day.
Eric Conklin is the only senior on the Lobos' roster, and he made sure he said goodbye in memorable fashion with solid play in his final home tournament.
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Conklin's first match of the day was a doubles match where he paired up with freshman Graeme Kassautzki for the win. Conklin and Kassautzki took down Air Force's No. 3 doubles tandem Ryan White and Keith Cronican 8-4.
After the match, Conklin said he bounced back from a tough stretch.
"I think I'm finding my competitiveness that I didn't have a couple of weeks ago, so that's been helping me," Conklin said.
At the No. 1 spot, Max Jones and Kamil Pajkowski had trouble getting their offense going against the Falcons' Shannon Buck and Trevor Johnson. The Falcons jumped out to an early lead against Jones and Pajkowski with the score at 5-0. Jones and Pajkowski could only grab three games in the match, as they fell 8-3 to the Falcons' No. 1 tandem.
Freshmen Miles Bugby and Johnny Parkes seemed to find their rhythm midway through a competitive doubles match against Gregory Ferry and Robert Alexander of Air Force. Bugby and Parkes finished off Ferry and Alexander 8-3 in the No. 2 doubles spot.
With two of the three doubles matches won, UNM took an early 1-0 advantage heading into the singles matches.
Conklin was the first Lobo off the court in singles as he put Ferry of Air Force away with a 6-0, 6-1 win. Conklin's early win gave UNM its second point of the afternoon.
Conklin said it was important for him to be successful in his final home competition.
"Especially on Senior Day, I wanted to go out with two wins," he said. "One doubles, one singles, so I was focused on going out with a W."
The Lobos' Kassautzki also finished off a quick match, handling the Falcons' Alexander 6-2, 6-1 to put the Lobos up 3-0.
Jones defeated Johnson of Air Force in two sets as well 6-1, 6-3 in the No. 2 singles spot.
Working at the No. 4 singles spot for the Lobos, Pajkowski started off slow. He trailed Air Force's Cronican 0-2 in the first set but quickly picked it up and won the next 10 consecutive games, ending the match in the second set 6-2, 6-2.
The Falcons' only win came from the racket of Buck as he defeated Parkes at the No. 1 singles spot 6-0, 6-2.
The Lobos' last point came from freshman Chandler Brass when he beat out White 6-2, 6-1.
Head coach Alan Dils said he was happy with the win and with the benefits it should bring.
"It gives us a little momentum," Dils said. "It will certainly help us and get some of our confidence back going into the next three matches."
After the match, Dils explained what has helped Conklin develop into the type of player he is today.
"Persistence," Dils said. "It took him a couple of years to work up into the lineup. By starting there, some guys would falter and not really want to put in the year, two years, three years of effort to get to that point. He always did. He was very persistent. He definitely showed that he can play at a very good Division I level, and I think he has a lot to be proud of."
