Staff Report
The UNM men’s tennis team rebounded from its semifinal loss in the Mountain West Conference Tournament to defeat San Diego State University 4-2 on Saturday to take third place.
After getting upset on Friday by the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, the defending champion and second-seeded Lobos used strong efforts by their seniors to oust the top seeded Aztecs in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Lobos ended the season 17-6.
On Saturday, Takeshi Itoh and Andrew Irving won their singles matches and Kyle Russell helped get the doubles point for the 68th-ranked Lobos with a victory.
Itoh and Irving had two of UNM’s three singles victories in helping the Lobos win in a rematch of last year’s title match. Playing in the number one position, Itoh crushed the nation’s 22nd-ranked singles player, the Aztecs’ Oliver Maiberger 6-1, 6-1. Irving had to battle back from losing the first set to defeat the Aztecs Travis Hasson 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the number five position. The other Lobo to win in singles play was junior Michael Polasek in the number two position. He won a three-set thriller 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) over Valentin Pest.
UNM had little trouble winning the doubles point. At the number three position, Russell teamed up with junior Diego Garza to cruise to an 8-3 victory over SDSU’s Mike Coehlo and Khalid Naffa. The Lobos completed the win with an 8-5 trouncing at the number two position by Irving and sophomore Brent Salazar against Hasson and Matt Bere. The number one doubles position with Itoh and sophomore Bart Scott was not completed because the Lobos had already won the point.
The Lobos lost in the number three and six positions in singles play. At the number three position, Scott lost to the Aztecs’ Adam Webster 3-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-2. UNM junior John Kowalski was defeated 6-3, 6-3 by Bere at the number six position. Garza’s match at the number four position was cut short because the Lobos already won the match against SDSU.
On Friday, the Lobos hopes of winning its second straight MWC championship ended when 49th-ranked UNLV defeated the Lobos 4-2.
Despite putting up a strong fight, the Lobos could not overcome losing the doubles match point.
With both teams having won one doubles match apiece, it came down to a hard-fought marathon at the number two doubles position. Irving and Salazar teamed up to take on the Rebels Thomas Schneiter and Danny Erez. The Lobo pair battled from behind for much of the match and then tied up the match at eight. Then the Rebels took over in the tiebreaker, outscoring the Lobos 7-2 to take the match 9-8 and win the doubles point.
Itoh and Kowalski were able to help the Lobos claim two singles victories.
Kowalski ousted Leslie Eisinga 6-4, 7-6 (6) at the number six position. At the number one position, Itoh defeated the 92nd-ranked Nenad Zivkovic 6-3 in the first set and was leading 2-0 in the second set when Zivkovic had to retire.
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