Women’s tennis team slams UTEP

Staff Report

The UNM women’s tennis team continued its dominance of the University of Texas at El Paso with a close 4-3 road victory Saturday afternoon to end the regular season.

The win gave the 42nd-ranked Lobos a regular season record of 14-8 and improved their overall record against UTEP to 19-0. The loss dropped the Miners to 9-10.

Earlier in the day, Lobos Courtney Choate and Sandy Lukowski won a heart-wrenching 10-9 tiebreaker in the doubles match that helped propel the team to victory. After both teams exchanged wins in a pair of doubles matches, Choate and Lukowski came up with a hard fought doubles victory over Jana Perkova and Ana Brnas to give the Lobos the point after each team took three singles matches.

The Lobos and Miners split the first two doubles matches as senior Natalia Alekhova and freshman Tjasa Suvak teamed up in the number two position to trounce UTEP’s Kendall Exelby and Elizabeth Stone 8-4. The number three doubles team of sophomore Caroline Pollock and freshman Lindsey Marvel were crushed by Miners Callie Dand and Dione Gonzales 8-1.

The split set up the matchup at the number one doubles position. The Choate and Lukowski jumped out quickly, getting an early 5-0 lead. Perkova and Brnas would not go away quietly, fighting back to trail only 6-5. The match was tied at eight and was forced into a tiebreaker. After both teams battled back and forth, the Lobos finally put the Miners away 10-8 in the tiebreaker to win 10-9.

UNM‘s Alekhova won a three-set match at the number one position 6-1, 2-6, 6-1 over Perkova. The win was Alekhova’s 21st this season and 109th of her career, moving her four wins away from tying UNM’s career wins mark of 113 held by Ana Friganovic, who was Alexhova’s teammate from 1997-2000.

Suvak picked up her 19th win of the season, ousting the Miners’ Stone 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 at the number three position. At the number five position, Marvel cruised past Exelby 6-2, 6-3 for her 18th win of the season.

Lukowski was defeated 6-3, 7-5 by Brnas at the number two position. Choate lost 6-2, 7-5 to Dand at the number four position. Senior Nicoleta Spilca battled furiously, but lost a three-set match to the UTEP’s Gonzales 7-6, 2-6, 6-2.

The Lobos next match will be in the Mountain West Conference Tournament, which begins Thursday in Fort Collins, Colo. By finishing 4-3 in the conference during the regular season, the Lobos earned the fourth seed in the tournament. UNM will play the fifth-seeded University of Utah. The Lobos played the Utes once in the regular season and crushed the Utes 7-0.