The New Mexico women’s tennis team began its quest for a conference championship in Las Vegas, Nevada on Thursday, sweeping Boise State 4-0 to advance to the quarterfinal round.
Head coach Stephanie Wooten-Quijada and assistant coach Colby Meeks both expressed the importance of this weekend throughout the season.
And with an NCAA berth still a possibility, the team may be able to reap the benefits of all the hard work it has put in.
The Lobos posted a 7-13 during the regular season but appear to be peaking at the right time. UNM has won seven of its last nine matches, including going 4-1 against Mountain West competition.
New Mexico was originally slated as the No. 10 seed in the tournament, but a release said the Mountain West reseeded the field after some incomplete results were reported. The reseeding ended up dropping UNM one spot in the rankings, though it didn’t seem to affect the way the women played on Thursday.
The 11th seeded Lobos wasted no time getting on track in the tournament. The doubles point eluded UNM for much of the first half of the season, but Emily Olivier and Diana Wong put the team in good position by securing a 6-3 victory in doubles play.
Pair Ludivine Burguiere and Cassie Chung followed suite, winning their match by the same score, and putting New Mexico on top: 1-0 in the team score.
In singles play, the momentum continued. Wong, a freshman, played like a four-year veteran. She ground out a win in the first set and never let her opponent back in the match. She defeated Lilian Poling, 6-4, 6-0 to put the Lobos up 2-0 and set the tone.
Dominique Dulski worked quickly in her match as well, cruising to a straight-set victory over Wiktoria Nosek, 6-1, 6-2.
Chung, playing at the No. 6 position, sealed the deal for the Lobos. She didn’t surrender a single game in the first set and also took a straight-set win, dispatching Kirsty Venter, 6-0, 6-3.
The win secured a 4-0 sweep over Boise State and advanced New Mexico into the next round.
Although the match ended in a sweep, it was probably much closer than the score indicated. The remaining three singles matches, which went unfinished, were all trending toward going into a decisive third set.
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The win was the second for the Lobos over the Broncos this season, with UNM taking a 4-3 team win at home on Apr. 9.
Up next, New Mexico will take on the No. 3 seed in the tournament, San Jose State. The Spartans will have the benefit of coming off a first-round bye.
The teams, which did not play against each other in the regular season, will square off at 3 p.m. on Friday, Apr. 28 at the Fertitta Tennis Center.
Robert Maler is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers football and men’s and women’s tennis. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @robert_maler.
