The New Mexico men’s tennis team picked up two wins Friday in its first home action, playing nearly perfect tennis against DePaul followed by a sweep of Utah.
The Lobos played in Albuquerque for the first time this year after a treacherous 13-match road stretch to start the season.
Head coach Bart Scott said the energy from the crowd, people moving around and the smell of hot dogs filling the air from the nearby baseball game created a great atmosphere.
“It feels so good to be home and it’s such a good environment to be in,” he said. “We play pretty tough at home.”
However, playing at home may have resulted in its slow start against DePaul, Scott said. The team played possibly the worst doubles he said he has seen, but it had nothing to do with effort. Rather, it was because the players were so tight.
The team has had to endure a lot of adversity so far this season, Scott said, and the confident response from its members made him proud. And those tough matches earlier in the season laid the groundwork for Friday’s results.
After dropping the doubles point to DePaul, the Lobos won all six singles matches. Jorge Escutia earned the clinching point by defeating Paul John in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2.
The rest of the team won their singles matches to earn the Lobos a 6-1 team victory over the Blue Demons.
New Mexico carried the momentum into its match against Utah later in the day. Doubles partners Rodolfo Jauregui and Augustus Ge won their doubles match, 6-2. Ricky Hernandez Tong and Escutia followed that with a 6-3 victory to secure the doubles point.
After winning the first two singles matches, Escutia put New Mexico within one point of victory when he closed out Utah’s David Micevski, 6-2, 6-3. Escutia dropped in a beautiful passing shot, followed by a cross-court shot that painted the line.
Escutia said he felt the early struggles helped, and that it was good to play against so many ranked teams because the team got to see how it stacked up, and what it needed to improve on.
“We’ve been practicing a lot, and that’s just confidence,” Escutia said. “I know in the big moments I can do those things and I just went for it.”
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The Lobos won a pair of tiebreakers, and Hayden Sabatka closed out the night, 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 to complete the evening for a 7-0 sweep of the Utes.
The head coach said his coaching staff, Ben Dunbar and Johnny Parkes, deserve a lot of credit. Many teams might have mailed it in after a rough start, but the coaching staff did a great job getting the members prepared.
The wins improve the Lobos season record to 5-10. The men will continue to play at home as they face BYU Friday and Air Force two times on Saturday. Only one of the Air Force matches will count towards conference play.
Robert Maler is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @robert_maler
