LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Abilene Christian's sixth-ranked women's tennis team Friday lost for the first time since Feb. 25 as the New Mexico State Aggies of the Western Athletic Conference held on for a 4-3 victory.
Natalia Salum clinched the dual with her three-set win at No. 5 over
Laura Mongin, 6-7, 6-3, 7-5. Mongin's loss brought her team best 12-match individual winning streak to a close.
Head coach
Hutton Jones wasn't happy with the end result, but felt it was good for his team to experience a close match.
"We'd been winning easily as of late, so it was good to be under some pressure from start to finish," he said. "New Mexico State is a very good team, but we had our chances against them and just could not seal the deal. Now we're forced to learn from what we didn't get done, and be ready for tomorrow's match at UTEP."
ACU opened the match with a hard-fought sweep of doubles, which included matching 8-6 wins at the No. 2 and 3 lines, and a marathon 9-8 (23-21) decision at No. 1 for the nationally-ranked duo of
Micah Hermsdorf and
Hannah Kelley over Salum and Manon Sylvain. But with the Wildcats having to abide by DI rules today, the three victories only netted them one team point instead of the customary three at the DII level.
Jones noted, "If we had been playing by DII rules today, we would have won 5-4."
New Mexico State went on to grab a 2-1 lead after winning at the No. 3 and 6 lines, where both
Brittney Reed and Hannah Kelly lost in straight sets. But then Hermsdorf held off Denise Van Der Ben at No. 2, 7-6, 6-3, to tie the score at 2-2, and
Julia Mongin followed with a
three-set comeback win over Sylvain, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.
For
Julia Mongin - the third-ranked singles player in DII - today's win improved her spring record to 12-1 with 11 of those victories coming at the top line. Hermsdorf and Reed, meanwhile, are now tied for the team's best record at 17-3.
ACU's 3-2 lead, however, could not hold up as Annemieke Witte's 7-6, 6-3 victory over
Emily Conrad at No. 5, directly led into Salum's decisive win over
Laura Mongin.
Friday's loss dropped the Wildcats' record to 17-3, while the Aggies - winners of eight of their last 10 - improved to 9-5. All three of ACU's losses have been to DI schools.
No. 6 Abilene Christian at New Mexico State
March 30, 2012 at Las Cruces, N.M.
(NM State Tennis Complex)
New Mexico State 4, Abilene Christian 3
Singles
No. 1:
Julia Mongin (ACU) def. Manon Sylvain (NMSU), 4-6, 7-5, 6-4
No. 2:
Micah Hermsdorf (ACU) def. Denise Van Der Ben (NMSU), 7-6, 6-3
No. 3: Ginet Pinero (NMSU) def.
Brittney Reed (ACU), 6-1, 6-3
No. 4: Natalia Salum (NMSU) def.
Laura Mongin (ACU), 6-7, 6-3, 7-5
No. 5: Annemieke Witte (NMSU) def.
Emily Conrad (ACU), 7-6, 6-3
No. 6: Ros-Polly Nguyen (NMSU) def.
Hannah Kelley (ACU), 6-3, 6-1
Order of finish: 3, 6, 2, 1, 5, 4
Doubles
No. 1: Hermsdorf/Kelley (ACU) def. Salum/Sylvain (NMSU), 9-8 (23-21)
No. 2: J. Mongin/L. Mongin (ACU) def. Witte/Van Der Ben (NMSU), 8-6
No. 3: Reed/
Madelyn Walker (ACU) def. Pinero/Nguyen (NMSU), 8-6
Order of finish: 3, 2, 1
