The men's Mountain West Conference tennis championship title came down to one match Saturday afternoon in San Diego - and it just happened to be in the hands of No. 22 Divan Coetzee.
After losing the doubles point, the top-seeded Lobos regrouped and beat the No. 3 seed San Diego State Aztecs 4-3.
Coetzee said the Lobos were shaken after losing the doubles point.
"We were a little bit concerned," he said. "We've never beat them by winning four singles matches. David (Kowalski) winning at No. 2 was a big win for us. I don't think he's ever beat the guy who he played."
SDSU's Felix Hardt and Ryan Redondo beat UNM's No. 1 doubles team of juniors Kowolski and Ryan Stotland 8-4, and Markus Dickhardt and Dontia Haynes clinched the point for the Aztecs, defeating Coetzee and freshman Hiroud Akhavan 8-3.
San Diego State is led by head coach Gene Carswell. Carswell graduated from UNM in 1993 and played under the direction of UNM head coach Alan Dils for one year. But Dils said the coaches are still supportive of one another and coaching against each other is a good kind of competition.
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"Gene is a very good friend," Dils said. "What made it fun was that we were playing against each other in the finals."
Stotland lost again to the Aztecs' No. 3 singles player, Dickhardt, which gave SDSU a 2-0 advantage. But the Lobos were able to get even behind senior Jasmin Hodzic and Akhavan.
Kowalski pushed the Lobos into the lead, but Daniel Jung defeated UNM's Henry Gers, which set the stage for Coetzee's dramatic finish. Coetzee lost the first set of the match, but pushed it to a third set, which left them on the court after all other matches had been decided.
"You can't ask for anything more," Dils said. "They were both seniors, both No. 1. It was an extremely tense match."
Coetzee said he had been following the other matches and was fully aware the game had come down to his match.
"I was hoping it wouldn't come down to that," Coetzee said. "But I would rather have it on my shoulders than anyone else because I'm a senior."
The Lobos and the Aztecs were tied at 3 when Coetzee surged past Hardt 6-7, 6-2, 7-5. He said the second and third sets were much easier.
"This guy tends to get tired toward the end, and I knew that," Coetzee said. "I was kind of bargaining on that."
The UNM women's tennis team was on the flip side of an intense match that came all the way down to the end, losing 4-3 to Brigham Young.
However, with a record of 20-4, the No. 30 UNM women will likely receive an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament. Dils said the selection is Wednesday, which will decide where and when the Lobos will play. NCAA regionals are slated for May 14-16.
