MALIBU, Calif. --- No. 70 UC Irvine fell in the doubles point ultimately breaking the singles tie to doom them to a 4-3 loss to New Mexico in the neutral site match in Malibu, Calif.
The teams split the first two doubles sets before New Mexico (2-7) rallied for the 6-4 win at No. 1 doubles to take the 1-0 lead in the match.
After UNM scored a singles sweep at No. 5, Jonathan Hammel got one back for the Anteaters (5-3) at No. 6 singles.
UNM extended their lead back to two points at No. 2 singles before Luca Marquard at No. 4 and Sebastian Heim at No. 1 singles tied the match back up at 3-3 with sweeps of their own.
It came down to Tyler Pham at No.3 who won the opening set, but conceded the second set, 7-5, to extended into a third set. Lobo Jorge Escutia powered through to upend Pham, 6-3, for the clincher and upset the 'Eaters, 4-3.
"Tough loss against New Mexico," said Head Coach Mike Saunders. "It stings because we had chances to win despite not having Vatsal who has been a sure point, but this can be one of those valuable losses that propels us forward if we have the maturity to grow from it."
Saunders' hope in the teams potential will be on display next on Friday, Feb. 19 with a home match against Northern Arizona at 1:00 p.m.
NEW MEXICO 4, (70) UC IRVINE 3
Feb. 13, 2016 – Malibu, Calif.
Doubles
1 Hayden Sabatka/Rodolfo Jauregui (UNM) def. Poon, Jonathan/Agbayani, Justin (UCI) -- 6-4
2 Heim, Sebastian/Mertens, Nico (UCI) def. Jorge Escutia/Ricky Hernandez-Tong (UNM) -- 6-2
3 Agustus Ge/Bart Van Leijsen (UNM) def. Pham, Tyler/Hammel, Jonathan (UCI) -- 6-3
Singles
1 Heim, Sebastian (UCI) def. Hayden Sabatka (UNM) -- 6-3, 6-4
2 Bart Van Leijsen (UNM) def. Mertens, Nico (UCI) -- 6-4, 6-4
3 Jorge Escutia (UNM) def. Pham, Tyler (UCI) – 2-6, 7-5, 6-3
4 Marquard, Luca (UCI) def. Agustus Ge (UNM) -- 6-2, 6-2
5 Ricky Hernandez-Tong (UNM) def. Agbayani, Justin (UCI) -- 6-3, 6-2
6 Hammel, Jonathan (UCI) def. Michael Tran (UNM) -- 6-1, 6-3
UCI (5-3) | UNM (2-7)
Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (5,6,2,4,1,3)
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