Air Force men’s tennis lost to New Mexico, 4-2, in a Mountain West match on April 17 at the McKinnon Family Tennis Stadium in Albuquerque. The Falcons finished their regular season with a record of 9-12 overall and 2-5 in conference play.
The match was closely contested, with two long tiebreaker sets at No. 1 singles proving decisive for New Mexico. After Air Force’s Matthew Staton won at No. 6 singles to bring the score to 3-2, the outcome hinged on No. 1 singles where AJ Moore was defeated by Dario Ciobotaru in two tiebreak sets, both extending into double digits: 7-6 (8), 7-6 (12).
Air Force initially fell behind after losing the doubles point and dropping the first singles match. Alec Fritzinger put Air Force on the board with a straight-set win at No. 5 singles over Tyler Waddock, but New Mexico extended its lead with another win before Staton’s victory kept Air Force close.
“It was a hard fought match from the guys today,” head coach Evan Urbina said. “We didn’t play our best in doubles, especially with executing some of the basic fundamentals. However, we fought back in singles to make it close. Every player stepped up and competed. We look forward to the conference tournament next week.”
The Falcons will next compete at the Credit Union 1 Mountain West Men’s Tennis Championship from April 22–24 at Darling Tennis Center in Las Vegas as the seven-seed team.
