April 1, 2005

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - No. 75 University of Denver men's tennis team was defeated by No. 54 New Mexico, 6-1, this afternoon in Albuquerque, N.M. The Lobos swept the doubles matches to earn the doubles point and captured five of six singles matches to improve to 5-5, while the Pioneers drop to 5-8.

Niklas Persson (Stockholm, Sweden) recorded Denver's lone win at No. 1 singles defeating New Mexico's Ryan Stotland, 7-5, 6-4. Persson improves to 1-1 at No. 1 singles.

"I thought this was a really good win for Niklas," said head coach Geoff Young. "The guys did a good job stepping up and overall we fought hard and lost two close matches in tiebreakers. We need to take advantage of good opportunities and need to focus better in close matches."

The Pioneers lost two close matches in thrilling super tiebreakers. At No. 2 singles, Viktor Zetterholm (Stockholm, Sweden) was defeated by Max Jones, 7-5, 5-7, 1-0 (7), and at No. 4 singles, Steve Flaks (Colorado Springs, Colo.) lost to Kamil Pajkowski, 4-6, 7-6, 1-0 (6).

On the doubles side, Denver fought hard but was unable to tally a victory as all three doubles teams were defeated. Zetterholm and Persson lost 8-5 to the fourth ranked duo in the nation, David Kowalaski and Stotland at No. 1 doubles. Flaks and Jason Tan (Amsterdam, Netherlands) dropped 9-7 to Jones and Pajkowski at No. 2 doubles and Ryan Slemons (Woodinville, Wash.) and Kalle Rosen (Helsingborg, Sweden) fell to Derek Boland and Eric Conklin, 8-4, at No. 3 doubles.

The Pioneers return to action tomorrow against Santa Clara at 11 a.m. MT in Albuquerque.

No. 54 New Mexico 6, No. 75 Denver 1 

Doubles
1. No. 4 Kowalaski/Stotland (NMU) def. Zetterholm/Persson (DU), 8-5
2. Jones/Pakjowski (NMU) def. Flaks/Tan (DU), 9-7
3. Boland/Conklin (NMU) def. Rosen/Slemons (DU), 8-4

Singles
1. Niklas Persson (DU) def. Ryan Stotland (NM), 7-5, 6-4
2. Max Jones (NM) def. Viktor Zetterholm (DU), 7-5, 5-7, 1-0 (7)
3. No. 100 David Kowalski (NM) def. Jason Tan (DU), 6-3, 6-2
4. Kamil Pajkowski (NM) def. Steve Flaks (DU), 4-6, 7-6, 1-0 (6)
5. Eric Conklin (NM) def. Kalle Rosen (DU), 6-2, 6-2
6. Derek Boland (NM) def. P.J. McGinnis (DU), 6-2, 6-1.