Not much went wrong for UNM in Thursday night’s first round at the McKinnon Family Tennis Stadium. The No. 1 seeded Lobos did not lose a single set to the No. 8 Falcons.
Head coach Bart Scott said garnering the first point of the match in doubles gave New Mexico a huge advantage and set the tone for the remainder of the duel.
“It’s a huge point. In college tennis, it’s really only one-seventh of the match, but it’s a huge point,” Scott said. “To go into the singles only having to win three ... it’s a big lift.”
Doubles partners sophomore Hayden Sabatka and freshman Bart Van Leijsen got things started quickly on their way to a 6-3 victory over Air Force’s Lucas Fumagalli and Grant Taylor. James Hignett and Augustus Ge only lost one game against Nicholas Carpenter and Max Olson in a 6-1 win. Mitchell McDaniels and Samir Iftikhar left the 5-1 match unfinished.
Sabatka took down Taylor first in singles competition, taking both sets 6-4 and 6-2. Although the match started off slowly for Sabatka, the sophomore battled back after trailing 4-3 in the first set of the first court and never looked back.
The second singles court to finish was Iftikhar and McCullers. Iftikhar played McCullers off of court two after winning both sets by a 6-3 and 6-4 count.To finish off the dominant evening, New Mexico turned to its Mountain West freshman of the year. Van Leijsen and Olson played in one of the most competitive sets of the evening as six points were not enough to facilitate a win in the first set.
Van Leijsen battled back from a 6-5 deficit by winning two straight games to avoid dropping the first set. The freshman didn’t allow for a nail-biter in the second set, taking home a 6-1 victory that pushed the Lobos into the next round of the tourney.
Van Leijsen said he didn’t let the MW freshman of the year award affect his play. He said he knew that his play was good this past season, but said the opponent is what he focuses on when stepping onto the court.
After the announcement on Wednesday afternoon, Van Leijsen said winning the accolade meant a lot to keep the award in New Mexico after Sabatka claimed the award a year ago.
“I played really well in the conference matches, so I thought about it,” Van Leijsen said. “I didn’t think about it in the matches, though. I just played every match for the team.”
UNM’s next test will be against Boise State, a team that has knocked the Lobos out of the Mountain West Tournament the past three years. The two have only faced in the championship game each of those three years.
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“We’ve beaten Boise (State) on the road,” Scott said. “I’m sure they’d love nothing more than to come over and return the favor.”
Liam Cary-Eaves is the assistant sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at assistantsports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Liam_CE.
