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UNM men’s tennis head coach Alan Dils is a proponent of tough love.
The Lobos suffered a close loss against UNLV at home Friday afternoon, leading the day 3-1 before losing the next three matches to fall 4-3 to the Rebels.
Dils said that leading into Sunday’s match against Fresno State, he did what he could to rally his team for the last home match of the season.
“I yelled at them and said things that probably shouldn’t be repeated, will not be repeated,” Dils said. “We talked a lot about pride, which, in my opinion, we didn’t play with on Friday. We had opportunities to win that match, and at the end of the day we were the ones that rolled over and not UNLV and on our home courts. With the personnel that we have, that’s purely unacceptable.”
Dils’ finger-waving wasn’t for naught, for the Lobos then swept the Fresno State 7-0 Sunday afternoon. UNM is now 10-11 overall.
The day began with an early lead for the Lobos, as they won each doubles match against the Bulldogs. No. 1 doubles senior Conor Berg and freshman Andrew Van der Vyver rallied against Bulldogs Reid deLaubenfels and Sam MacNeil, coming from behind at 4-5 to win 8-6.
No. 2 doubles senior Jadon Phillips and sophomore Samir Iftikhar pulled through a similarly tough match against Sai Kartik Nakireddi and Jeremy Quiroz at 8-7, while No. 3 doubles sophomores James Hignett and Mads Hegelund strolled to a victory against Felipe Fritz and Nikolas Papic, winning 8-3.
Berg, one of the Lobos’ two seniors, won both of his matches against the Bulldogs, coming on top of his singles match 6-1, 6-4 against the third seed Nakireddi. Berg said team members wrote the word “pride” on their hands, a sentiment that showed growth from Friday’s match.
“Even though it was a close match and we had it right there, we felt like we handed them the match, they didn’t beat us, we beat ourselves,” Berg said. “We wanted to come out today with every single person believing in not only the team but in ourselves.”
No. 5 seed Hegelund walked away from his match against MacNeil fairly unscathed, winning 6-0, 6-4. The last three matches were decided in a third set, as Iftikhar, Hignett, and McDaniels rounded out the day with a singles win each.
Senior and No. 1 seed Phillips took an early lead against Fritz, winning his first set 6-3. The match’s momentum went to Fritz in the second set, however, as Phillips fell early 0-3 before rallying to win five consecutive games for a 7-5 win. The match ended on a sour note, as Fritz threw his racket against the ground, leading to an unsportsmanlike conduct notice and a point handed to Iftikhar’s match.
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Phillips said he was proud to win his last two matches at home.
“We need to take pride in being a Lobo; being able to play tennis, being able to be a college athlete, you should honor that,” Phillips said. “We’re here for a purpose and we need to remember that purpose every time we step on the court.”
