The UNM men's tennis team closed the door on Mountain West Conference play and its home season Sunday with a 6-0 trouncing of the Air Force Academy at the Lobo Tennis Club.
The win against the Falcons (12-8, 0-5 in the conference) was bittersweet, however, as the Lobos (12-8, 2-2) dropped from contention for the regular season conference title with a 6-1 loss to Brigham Young University on Saturday.
Head coach Alan Dils said matches such as these against the Falcons check a team's character.
"We stepped up after losing a match yesterday that we wanted bad," he said. "You look at the matches we've lost this year, and we're just a couple of points away from the regular season conference championship."
Divan Coetzee set the tone Sunday with a 6-0, 6-1 drubbing of the Falcons' Eric Pittman at the number one singles position.
"There wasn't too much pressure today," he said. "We expected to do much better yesterday, and it was heartbreaking, to be honest, but you put it behind you. I had fun out there today. I wish I could have more matches like that."
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Coetzee played a versatile game, running his opponent from corner to corner, attacking the net when he had the opportunity. He mixed in a variety of drop shots to frustrate Pittman.
At number two singles, Bart Scott continued the Lobo onslaught with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Kyle Rainey.
"I just played my normal game and he (Rainey) didn't have a good day," Scott said. "We had high expectations for the weekend, but good teams bounce back and we can still win the conference tournament if we all play great at the same time. This has been a pretty tough weekend of tennis."
Michael Polasek kept the rout going at the number three position, downing Chris Zielinski 6-0, 6-2.
Polasek said he tried to attack and keep the points short because of recurring soreness in his right arm.
"Right now, we need to heal up," he said. "If we're healthy, we'll have a better shot at the conference tournament. We'll be ready."
UNM's John Kowalski struggled early in his match against Justin Mancinelli at the number four singles spot. He dropped the first set, but bounced back to take a 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 win.
At the number five position, the Lobos' Ryan Stotland earned a hard-fought, three-set victory against Tyler McClung 7-6, 3-6, 6-4, while Brent Salazar completed the sweep with a 7-5, 6-3 win over the Falcons' Phil Yim. The doubles matches were not played because the Lobos had already secured the victory.
On Friday, the Lobos set up a showdown with BYU by defeating the University of Utah 4-3.
The match came down to a thrilling 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 win by Coetzee to earn the final point with the teams tied at 3-3. Coetzee won all three of his matches during the weekend.
Against the Cougars on Saturday, a win would have guaranteed the Lobos a share of the conference title. The 6-1 loss was not indicative of the tennis display put on by the two teams.
UNM lost the doubles point when Salazar and Stotland in the number two doubles position were edged 9-8 in the deciding match for the doubles point. In singles, Coetzee earned the only victory, but each match was tightly contested with two going the full three sets and the other two losses coming in tight 6-4, 6-4 matches.
UNM will travel to Lubbock, Texas, next weekend to wrap up the regular season with non-conference matches against Rice University and Texas Tech University.
Dils said the Lobos will use the weekend as a final tune-up for the conference tournament.
"We're going to be right in the thick of it," Dils said, referring to the conference tournament. "Our goal is to win it, and we won't be satisfied if we don't."
