Easy wins defang Jaguars

The men’s tennis team went into the Linda Estes Tennis Complex on Sunday with a three-game winning streak and a determination to extend it to four.

UNM accomplished the goal with ease, taking down the University of South Alabama 6-1.

“It was a good win for us,” head coach Alan Dils said. “I thought we did it in good fashion. We did a great job in doubles. We did a great job in singles.”

The Lobos started the match strong, sweeping the three doubles matches to take a 1-0 lead.

In the No. 1 match, UNM junior Conor Berg and senior Ben Dunbar took on Jaguars Romain Bocaert and Alex Bernard.

Berg and Dunbar won 8-6, but it was far from an easy win.

“We made a lot of mistakes,” Berg said. “Ben played really well as the match went on, which was the key to our win. The doubles win really catapulted us into singles and we kept the energy really high.”

In singles play, the Lobos’ six-man lineup handled their Jaguar opponents with ease.

Lobo junior Jadon Phillips and freshman Samir Iftikhar played the only games that went into tiebreakers.

Playing in the No. 1 spot, Phillips defeated the Jaguars’ Bocaert 2-1, but needed a 7-5 tiebreaker to win the second set.

Playing in the No. 3 spot and facing Jaguar Daniel Leitner, Iftikhar won his first set 6-2 before he lost his second set on a 7-6 tiebreaker.

The intensity carried over to the third set, as it too went to a 6-6 tie.

Iftikhar lost the match, falling in the tiebreaker 10-3. He was the only Lobo to lose that day.

The rest of the Lobos won their matches with the identical 2-0 score line.

In the No. 2 spot, Dunbar defeated Bernard, Berg defeated Jaguar Cody Hall in the fourth spot, senior Carl Ho defeated Jaguar Christian Kuehne in the fifth spot, and sophomore Mitch McDaniels defeated Jaguar Dauw Kruger in the sixth spot.

“It’s a great boost for us,” Phillips said. “Any win is a good win. I think we are playing better and better, so hopefully we can carry that into Evanston (Illinois), when we play Northwestern (next week).”