The New Mexico men’s tennis team will wrap up a grueling road trip against three teams this weekend before finally returning to Albuquerque to host its home opener.
The Lobos split a doubleheader last weekend in California, beating UC Irvine 4-3 and losing to Pepperdine 1-4 in some tightly contested matchups. The team will look to build on some of the positive aspects from those matchups.
Head coach Bart Scott separated the doubles pair of Hayden Sabatka and Bart Van Leijsen last weekend, at least temporarily, to inject some life into doubles play. He said the switch served its purpose, but would not say how long the changes would last.
“Not only is it going to help Bart and Hayden, but it will give a ton of confidence to Rodolfo (Jauregui) and Augustus (Ge),” he said. “(Jauregui and Ge) are great doubles players in their own right, but for them to play with those guys makes a big difference.”
Scott said the team has an extremely tough task ahead of itself going to Columbia on Friday. He said the team has been to the last two Sweet 16s in the NCAA and only lost twice the whole season two seasons ago.
“Playing them on their home court is going to be a very tough task,” Scott said. “We finally started to play with the energy and intensity that is needed to play at the highest level.”
He said the Lobos have a lot of young players on the team, but they are starting to figure things out. He said he is encouraged by the way the men are playing now.
“I feel really good about where we’re at and where we’re going,” Scott said. “And a lot of that has to do with where we’ve been.”
The team has played a tough schedule, opening with 10 straight road meeting not including the three they will play this weekend. Scott said he feels the preparation and experience gained will start to pay dividends.
On Saturday, New Mexico will travel to Pennsylvania to potentially participate in a doubleheader against Monmouth in the morning and Pennsylvania in the afternoon. The Monmouth match was originally supposed to be against Navy, but a scheduling conflict prevented the teams from meeting and Monmouth appears to be ready to take Navy’s place.
Scott said Monmouth is also a good, well-coached team. He said they usually give teams all they can handle and the Lobos will not overlook them. Monmouth lost a close matchup to Georgetown last weekend 3-4.
Pennsylvania is coached by former Lobo coach David Geatz. The team traveled to Albuquerque last year, and Scott said they were happy to return the favor. Penn went 1-2 last weekend hosting a trio of Ivy League schools, defeating Dartmouth, 4-3 and losing to both Princeton, 3-4 and Harvard, 2-5.
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The Lobos will return to Albuquerque to host its home opener next Friday. New Mexico is slated to play another doubleheader against DePaul and Utah.
Robert Maler is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @robert_maler
