by Phil Parker
Daily Lobo
The UNM men's tennis team improved its record to 7-4 by defeating intrastate rival New Mexico State 4-3 Saturday.
Despite losing sophomore David Kowalski to a sprained ankle, the Lobos had reason to look forward to the match with the return of Ryan Stotland and senior leader Bart Scott. UNM set a strong initial tone at the meet, dominating the doubles to take the deciding overall point in the match. The scores were 8-4, 8-4, and 8-2 as the Lobos swept the doubles.
"It certainly helped our doubles to have (Stotland and Scott) back in the lineup," head coach Alan Dils said. "They're both very good doubles players, and I thought we did a good job in those matches."
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Scott and freshman Henry Gers paired to form the No. 1 doubles team, beating NMSU's top pair of Danilo Zivonovic and Dan Even.
Though the overall match score was close, the outcome was decided when the Lobos took four of the first five possible points.
Stotland, back after missing the previous six matches, was rusty against Even and lost 3-6, 3-6. Gers and Brent Salazar both fell in tough three-set matches after the match had already been decided.
Despite feeling slight effects of the car accident that had kept him out, Scott made short work of his opponent at No. 2, Ben Archer-Clowes, serving and rallying effectively to win 6-1 and 6-2.
"I actually had a good full week of practice and played surprisingly well," Scott said. "[Archer-Clowes] is a good player, but I just seemed to get all the breaks."
At No. 1, junior Divan Coetzee beat Mark Roberts 6-3, 6-4, in what Coetzee described as a hard, ugly match.
"It was a bad match for me," he said, "I didn't play well at all, but I found a way to keep my serve and was lucky enough to break him twice."
The other singles win for UNM came from Jasmin Hodzic, who was the first to finish playing, beating Simon Baumgartner 6-0, 6-4.
Hodzic expressed particular satisfaction with vanquishing the Aggies yet again.
"We've won the last three or four years in a row now," he said. "We hate losing to the Aggies."
Despite the big win against a rival program, Dils wasn't satisfied after all the matches had been decided.
"I think we played poorly but managed to scrape it out," he said. "We had opportunities that we didn't take advantage of and we should have won some of these matches that we ended up losing. We had the shots to win, we just need to execute."
But if Dils wasn't happy with the match, he can at least take solace in getting his players back healthy.
"I can't wait until we're completely healthy," he said, "I think we've shown that we're a pretty good team when we have all our players."
