April 13, 2007
FORT WORTH, Texas - With a treacherous Texas storm forcing all action inside on Friday, the UNLV men's tennis team swept doubles play and then held on for a 4-3 upset of No. 46 New Mexico in a neutral-site Mountain West Conference clash at the TCU Indoor Tennis Center.
UNM was the highest-ranked team UNLV defeated since shocking No. 10 Oklahoma State on March 13, 2005, and the highest-ranked league opponent to fall since No. 30 San Diego State on March 31, 2002.
The Rebels improved to 9-12 overall and evened their conference record at 2-2 while the Lobos fell to 13-8 and 2-2 on the year.
UNLV began the day by taking all three doubles matches for one team point. Elliot Wronski and Brett Hunter prevailed 8-4 at the top spot, Wesley Burrows and Jonathan Hooper won 8-5 at No. 2 and David Campbell and Slavko Bijelica won easily on court three 8-2.
In singles, the Rebels got a solid win from their top player, 89th-ranked Elliot Wronski, who swept Max Jones 6-4, 6-3 to improve to 13-7 in dual matches this season. UNLV's other two points proved much tougher to come by as freshman Slavko Bijelica rallied past Miles Bugby at No. 4 by the score of 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
After UNM took straight-set wins at Nos. 2, 3 and 5, the match came down to court six. Freshman Luca Barlocchi was blanked in the first set and then fell behind a break in the second but, with all eyes watching, impressively came all the way back to defeat Kamil Pajkowski 0-6, 6-4, 6-3 to end the five-hour marathon match.
"This was a great team effort today," said UNLV head coach Owen Hambrook. "The lead went back and forth all match but we fought hard against the highest-ranked team in the conference. The "Swiss Wizard" (Barlocchi) was down big but played extremely well in coming back and getting it done."
The Rebels will next face homestanding TCU on Saturday evening.
UNLV MEN'S TENNIS RESULTSUNLV 4, #46 NEW MEXICO 3At TCU Indoor Tennis Center, Fort Worth
DOUBLES: (UNLV EARNS ONE TEAM POINT)1. Wronski/Hunter (UNLV) def. Jones/Bugby (UNM) 8-42. Burrows/Jonathan Hooper (UNLV) def. Pajkowski/J. Parkes (UNM) 8-53. Campbell/Bijelica (UNLV) def. C. Parkes/Kassautzki (UNM) 8-2
SINGLES: (UNLV EARNS THREE TEAM POINTS)1. #89 Elliot Wronski (UNLV) def. Max Jones (UNM) 6-4, 6-32. Johnny Parkes (UNM) def. Wesley Burrows (UNLV) 6-1, 6-43. Graeme Kassautzki (UNM) def. Brett Hunter (UNLV) 6-4, 6-14. Slavko Bijelica (UNLV) def. Miles Bugby (UNM) 3-6, 6-3, 6-35. Chris Parkes (UNM) def. David Campbell (UNLV) 6-2, 6-46. Luca Barlocchi (UNLV) def. Kamil Pajkowski (UNM) 0-6, 6-4, 6-3
