Courtesy of New Mexico Athletics – 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Freshman Avery Tallakson, thrust into the lineup with an injury to Rafael Abdulsalam, clinched UNM’s quarterfinal victory over UNLV after winning a thrilling opening set, giving the Lobos a 4-0 quarterfinal win on the opening day of the Mountain West Championship.  The win sets up a rematch with Boise State on Thursday night in Las Vegas.  The Broncos handed UNM a 4-0 loss on Saturday in UNM’s home finale.

After not meeting during the regular season due to a rainout, the Lobos easily took the doubles point with a 6-0 win at No. 1 doubles as Arda Azkara and Alex Maggs winning over Jackson Atherton and Anton Ornberg.  The meant UNM needed just one more, and they got it at No. 2 doubles as Georgio Samaha and Nicolas Recoura won 6-3 over Taiyo Hirano and Illia Maksymchuk.

That sent the match to singles, where for a while, it was a little dicey.  Azkara, fresh off his Mountain West Player of the Year win on Tuesday that marked back-to-back top honors for him, scuffled early and lost his first set 6-1.  UNM also had senior Alex Maggs drop a 7-5 opening set at No. 5 singles.  While that happened, Aram Noroozian, playing at No. 4, won his opener 6-3 and Samaha won his 7-5.

The major momentum swings came in congruent tiebreakers at Nos. 2 and 5 as Arthur Bellegy and Tallakson both went to extras to decide the opening set.  Two losses and suddenly UNLV would have the upper hand.  A split would work and a sweep would give UNM a stronghold on the watch and potentially deliver a crushing blow.

It was a crushing blow indeed.

Tallakson opened with a 3-0 lead, but eventually dound himself on the wrong end of 6-5 and 8-7 scores as his opponent Thomas Navarro twice had set point, serving both times.  Both times Tallakson answered, and up 9-8, Avery put away his second set point of the match to take a lead.  While he was doing that, Bellegy cruised to a 7-2 tiebreak win, scoring the final six points after a double fault and an ace by Maksymchuk.

From there, UNM raced to a victory.  Azkara turned his match around with a second set win, and then he took control in the third.  Noroozian finished first with a 6-3, 7-5 win, and then Bellegy won handily after the opening tiebreaker, winning 7-6 (7-2), 6-1.  The race for the clinched was provided by the rookie Tallakson, who wasn’t in the singles lineup until a week ago.  He won 7-6 (10-8), 6-4 to send UNM into the semifinals.

Azkara was up 3-1 in his third set, Samaha was two points from a win at 7-5, 5-4 and Maggs was serving just two points away from forcing a third set.  Now UNM will face the No. 57 Broncos who moved to 18-10 with a 4-0 win over Air Force.  UNM is looking for some revenge after a 4-0 loss in which UNM could have won the match save for a loss in the doubles point, losing the deciding match on a 7-3 tiebreaker as UNM had advantages in the other remaining singles matches.  The match with BSU starts at 6 pm Mountain Time and the winner will advance to the Mountain West Championship against either the top-seed Utah State or 4-seed San Diego State.

NOTES: Bellegy won his 20th singles match of the year to move into second on the team … Recoura and Samaha now are tied for the team lead for doubles wins by a tandem with 13, tying with Tallakson and Ryoma Matsushita … Azkara remained at 19-3 and 14-1 in the spring.