Staff Report
The UNM men's tennis team slammed past the competition at the Region VII Tournament held in Las Vegas, Nev., on Wednesday.
The unexpected highlight of the tournament for UNM was a two-set upset against San Diego State University's Felix Hardt that helped propel UNM sophomore Ryan Stotland to next level of the singles round. Stotland came in unseeded in the tournament. But his surprising victory over Hardt, who was seeded fourth overall in the tournament and, according to pre-season rankings 75th in the nation, will allow Stotland to compete among the remaining 32 players in the field. On the road to play Hardt, Stotland first swept past Northern Arizona Universities Fredrik Jeppson in two sets with scores of 6-2, 6-2.
Also advancing to the final round of 32 was UNM's Divan Coetzee, who was seeded fifth out of 128, and seventh-seeded Bart Scott. Both players swept past their competitors in only two sets. Coetzee defeated his opponent, South Dakota State University's Gabe Coren, by a final score of 6-3, 6-0 in the second round. Due to his seeding, Coetzee was not required to compete in the first round.
Bart Scott continued the UNM success by beating Utah State's Jonah Nelson and 15th-ranked Lobo David Kowalski beat Weber State's Jonathan Engelbrecht 6-1, 6-4, both advancing to the round of 32.
Doubles play began Thursday with three UNM teams competing. Sixth-ranked Salazar/Stotland, fifth-seeded Coetzee/Scott and eleventh-ranked Ames/Kowalski are all in action.
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