New Mexico’s women’s tennis suffered its first loss of the season in Minnesota Saturday, and could not salvage a split on Sunday.
The Lobos got off to a rough start at the Courtside Classic on Saturday against 29th ranked Mississippi State. The Bulldogs played from ahead and eventually defeated New Mexico 6-1.
New Mexico was unable to pick up the doubles point, losing the first two matches 6-1. Ludivine Burguiere and Sharon Coone were battling in their doubles match and trailed 4-3 when the Bulldogs earned the clinching point.
Mississippi State kept momentum by winning the first two singles matches to lead 3-0. Burguiere extended play by defeating Kristina Vazniak in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3, but Mississippi State picked up the remaining games.
Head coach Kelcy McKenna said the team suffered from not being able to make adjustments and making some bad decisions in key moments.
“Obviously Mississippi State is a very good team, but I think we can out a little nervous and didn’t play our brand of tennis," she said. “We had some strong performances, but overall we weren’t consistent.”
On Sunday, New Mexico took on Minnesota. The two schools were evenly matched and traded wins throughout the day, but the Golden Gophers prevailed 5-3.
After splitting the first two doubles matches, Emily Olivier and Burguiere had an opportunity to win the coveted doubles point, but could not force a tiebreaker, losing 7-5 in the decisive match.
In singles play, the Lobos responded by winning its first two matches. Coone defeated Caitlyn Merzbacher, 6-2, 6-3, while Burguiere won against Annemarie Emme, 7-5, 6-1.
Minnesota won all of the remaining matches, but each went down to the wire. Dominique Dulski lost the first set in a tiebreaker and fell to Paula Rincon-Otero 6-7 (4-7), 3-6, which sealed the victory for Minnesota.
The schools elected to finish the final remaining singles match. Ruth Copas split her two sets before losing in a tiebreaker to Jessika Mozia, 7-5, 5-7, 0-1 (7-10).
McKenna said the team did a really good job of responding on Sunday, but still has some work to do. She said there will be some areas they will focus on work on before taking the court again on Friday.
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“We are going to focus on starting the match strong and maintaining attitude, energy and effort throughout the whole three hours that we play,” she said.
She said the team picked up some valuable experience playing on the road and the players learned what areas they need to focus on to improve their game.
The two losses drop New Mexico to 3-2 on the season. The Lobos will look to rebound when it returns to Albuquerque to face Denver on Friday.
Robert Maler is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers cross country, tennis, and track and field. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Robert_Maler.
