UNM men reach MWC tennis final
Lobo softball squad falls again to visiting UNLV
For those of you needing good news from University of New Mexico spring sports, there is men’s tennis.
The Lobos defeated Utah State 4-3 at the Mountain West Championshp Saturday in Colorado Springs and advance to Sunday’s 1 p.m. final against either top seed Nevada or No. 4 San Diego State with an automatic NCAA Tourney bid at stake.
UNM (11-12) rallied from a 3-1 deficit with singles wins by Georgio Samaha, Arda Azkara and Jan Pucalka. The latter at No. 4 singles needed a third set with all participants moving to that court to watch. Pucalka had three aces and another service winner to prevail 2-6, 6-0, 7-5. It was the first Lobos victory over these Aggies in three meetings this season.
MEN’S GOLF: In Bremerton, Washington, defending champion and No. 33 New Mexico improved in round two, but isn’t in the hunt to repeat at the Mountain West meet. The Lobos shot 3-under 285 Saturday but are 9-over through two rounds, in eighth place among 11 teams and 31 strokes behind leader and 22-under Colorado State.
Sam Choi leads the Lobos at 1-under 143 (73-70). The final round is Sunday.
SOFTBALL: At Lobo Field, UNLV (34-11, 12-5) picked up where it left off Friday with a six-inning 16-6 rout of UNM (25-21, 5-12) on Saturday in game two of the three-game league set. The finale is noon Sunday as UNM, which lost 11-1 Friday, looks to avert the sweep.
Lobo freshman Emma Bramson went 2-for-2, and Andrea Howard homered in a 1-3 performance that included a walk and a strikeout. Amber Linton (11-11), took the loss, though five of the 12 runs she allowed over 4⅔ innings were unearned.
TRACK AND FIELD: At Stanford, California, Elise Thorner and Adva Cohen had personal best times at the Payton Jordan Invitational on Friday night to begin the New Mexico track & field team’s final regular season weekend.
In the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, Elise Thorner finished in 9 minutes, 32.42 seconds. She already came in as No. 2 on the NCAA DI national qualifying list.
In the 5,000, Adva Cohen finished in 15:26.48, beating her previous best of 15:29.51. She is ranked No. 7 on the qualifying list for this event.
The Lobos also sent a group of athletes to compete Saturday at Fresno State.
BASEBALL: At Santa Ana Star Field, UNM fell 7-6 to San Jose State on Saturday night, its second one-run loss in the series. The final is noon Sunday.
Chase Weissenborn’s RBI single gave the Lobos a 5-3 lead in the fifth inning Saturday, but the Spartans scored twice in the sixth to even the score. Dalton Bowling’s two-out, two-run triple in the top of the eighth provided the winning margin.
Jeffrey David went 3-for-4 for UNM, and Cole Posey was 2-for-3 with a solo homer. Benjamin Baker-Livingston (0-1) pitched the final four innings and took the loss.