The UNM men's tennis team could not overcome an injury that sidelined its best singles player, losing 4-3 to 75th-ranked Boise State University Sunday at the Lobo Tennis Club.
The 74th-ranked Lobos performed poorly in singles play, losing four of the six singles matches, despite winning the doubles point.
UNM head coach Alan Dils said he was not pleased with his team's performance and questioned its desire.
"We need to hit the ball when it counts and not wait for them to make mistakes," Dils said. "They had more heart and wanted to win it more than we did."
The Lobos started off strong, with a sweep of three tight doubles matches.
The number one team of Bart Scott and Michael Polasek broke Boise State's team of Marcus Berntson and Guillame Bouvier serve in the 12th game to take a 7-5 lead. Scott served out the match for an 8-5 victory.
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At the number two position, Ryan Stotland and Brent Salazar defeated Boise State's Imraan Ismail and Jonny Biorkman 8-6, while UNM's David Kowalski and Diego Garza beat Boise State's Matias Silva and Mahmoud Rezk by the same score.
The Lobos had a tough time replacing their top singles player, Divan Coetzee, ranked 91st in the country, who was out of the lineup due to a shoulder injury sustained in Saturday's 6-1 victory against the University of Nevada at Reno.
Polasek filled in for Coetzee at the number one spot and lost a tough, hard-fought match to Berntson.
Both players used big serves to dominate play at different points in the match, with the only slip up at 4-3 when Berntson finally earned a break and closed out the set.
It looked like Berntson would dominate the second set, going up 4-1 early. But Polasek battled back, fighting to within one at 4-3 before losing a crucial game that featured five deuces and two break points to fall behind 5-3. He never regained his confidence and succumbed 6-4, 6-4.
At the number two singles position, Scott dropped a tough 6-4, 6-4 decision to Bouvier. David Kowalski and Silva staged a thriller at the number three spot, with the first set going to Kowalski in a tiebreaker. Silva bounced back behind a big serve and strong groundstrokes to take the next two sets and win the match 6-7, 6-4, 6-4. John Kowalski fared no better than his brother at the number four spot, as he lost 6-4, 6-2 to Rezk.
The lone bright spots in the singles play for the Lobos were Garza and Stotland at number five and six positions.
Garza rallied from a 5-1 deficit in the first set to force a tiebreaker. He closed out the set in the tiebreak 8-6 and then cruised in the second set to get a 7-6, 6-2 victory.
"I couldn't hit the ball at the beginning," Garza said. "I just calmed myself down and focused a little more in the second set. He had a big serve so I had to return well."
Stotland outlasted Beck Roghaar in the final singles match in three sets 7-6, 6-7, 7-5. Stotland's victory was only a consolation point though, as the team outcome had already been decided.
The Lobos will look to rebound this week when they open Mountain West Conference play against San Diego State University in Las Vegas, Nev. on March 29 and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas on March 30.
The Aztecs (8-7) head into the match-up ranked 25th in the nation and are coming off a 6-1 rout of 61st Princeton University at home Saturday without all-America candidate Oliver Maiberger.
The Rebels shut out Drake University Wednesday by a score of 7-0. With the win, UNLV improved its home record this spring to 6-1, while jumping to 7-6 overall.
