March 4, 2011
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The Purdue men's tennis team used strong singles play to upset the No. 46 New Mexico Lobos, 4-2, on Friday morning and advance to the second round of HEB Tournament. The Boilermakers will face No. 54 Texas A&M Corpus Christi at 5 p.m. tonight.
New Mexico (8-3) jumped out to an early lead after taking the doubles point. Ben Dunbar and Conor Berg knocked off the 78th-ranked doubles team of Krisztian Krocsko and Szymon Tatarcyzk at No. 1, 8-1. Shortly after, Carl Ho and Matthew Neeld topped Eric Ramos and Mark Kovacs, 8-3, and No. 3. Pawel Poziomski and Aaron Dujovne led, 5-3, at No. 2, but did not finish their match since the point had already been decided.
Purdue (7-3) responded and quickly evened the match score. Kovacs took down Phil Anderson at No. 3, 6-4, 6-1. The Boilermakers took a 2-1 lead after Krocsko put together a dominant performance at No. 1 and took down Jadon Phillips, 6-2, 6-4. The Lobos leveled the score with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 win by Ho at No. 4 over Ramos.
The Boilermakers reclaimed the lead with a comeback effort from Tatarczyk at No. 2. The Gorzyczki, Poland, native outlasted Dunbar, 3-6, 7-6 (8), 6-3. Dujovne also had to come back after dropping the first set. The freshman was able to hold on to win the second set and dominate the third to clinch the match with a 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-2 victory over Berg at No. 5.
Poziomski was in a battle of his own at No. 6 and was serving for the win when the team match was decided. He led 5-7, 7-6 (5), 5-3 over Mads Hegelund before the match ended.
The Boilermakers improve to 2-2 against ranked opponents this season. They also knocked off No. 73 Yale, 4-3, on Jan. 30.
Purdue advances to face No. 54 Texas A&M Corpus Christi in the second round. The match is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. ET from the HEB Tennis Center.