The men’s tennis team’s early winning streak is on the line this weekend.
UNM won its first two matches this spring season and travels to Gainesville, Fla. to take on No. 5 Florida in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) indoor playoff on Saturday.
“We need to play good and play composed,” head coach Alan Dils said. “It’s on their court and they have the home-court advantage, but if we play that way we have an opportunity.”
The ITA playoff pairs 60 different men’s teams and Dils said it will be good experience for his team because it’s similar to the NCAA regional tournament.
On Sunday the Lobos take on either Miami or Wake Forest, depending on Saturday’s results.
“We are exactly where we need to be at this point,” Dils said. “We have had a good start to the season but we are going to be playing some dangerous teams this spring.”
Senior Ben Dunbar said the team is eager to travel to Florida because it’s a trip that they rarely make.
Dunbar said they haven’t played a team of this caliber since he was a sophomore and traveled to Ohio to take on No. 3 Ohio State. He said the team is ready to give the Gators a tough time on their home court.
“We have to go out there and enjoy it,” he said. “We have experience playing top-five teams. The key out there is to not give them anything easy and let them know it’s not going to be an easy match for them and let them know who the Lobos are.”
UNM competed in various tournaments during the fall semester for practice in preparation for the spring season.
The Lobos started off their year with two straight wins last weekend, winning 4-3 over Nevada and sweeping Texas A&M–Corpus Christi 7-0.
Dils said he was excited with how his team performed and improved from its first match to the second.
“We did solid,” Dils said. “The second match was much better than the first in terms of our level of play. We were a little tight in the first match but we played a very clean second game.”
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This season the Lobos bring an experienced squad, including four seniors and three juniors. The team lost one player to graduation from last year’s team.
The tennis team is only allowed to play six players per match, and Dunbar said it’s often difficult to select which players will compete.
“We are looking pretty deep,” he said. “We have a tough time picking who is going to play, but it’s good because we are all pushing each other.”
Dunbar said the competition for playing time has been good for the team and has really pushed him harder, especially knowing there are younger players waiting for a chance to compete.
“Competition can be healthy on the team and so far this season it has been really helpful for us,” he said.
