The TCU men’s tennis team returns to its home turf to host the No. 53 New Mexico Lobos Friday.
TCU (8-12, 3-1 MWC) comes in after shutting out Utah 7-0 Sunday.
“That was our first shut out for a while,” head coach David Roditi said. “We’ll take that confidence right into the New Mexico match.”
The Lobos (12-7) are undefeated in conference play while No. 74 TCU is 3-1 in conference.
TCU came out with a 5-2 win against San Diego State their previous home match at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center March 28. The Frogs then traveled to Colorado Springs, Colo. to face Air Force March 31. Although Roditi said TCU would have to battle the elevation as well as the Falcons, TCU came away with a 5-2 victory at Air Force. TCU played BYU in Provo Saturday — TCU’s first conference loss of the season, 4-3 to the Cougars. The Frogs rebounded against Utah the following day, dominating the Utes in a 7-0 shutout.
Even with the team playing confident, TCU will face a tough match against UNM, Roditi said.
“We expect a battle, we expect for every point to be critical for every singles match and for every doubles match to be a critical point for the total score,” Roditi said.
However, despite being ranked lower than the Lobos, Roditi is still confident in the team’s ability to pull out another win.
“Our ranking doesn’t really reflect the level of our team,” Roditi said. “I would like to say that it is a pretty even match.”
TCU has not played since Sunday and took a couple of days off to rest up, Roditi said. Friday’s game will be the first on campus since this month.
“It is a season with three big home matches and this match is as big as any match,” Roditi said. “We are looking forward to having a lot of support from students.”
Frogs senior Chris Price is currently riding a five-match win streak in singles and finished last week with a combined record of 6-0.
The Lobos have won one of their past three matches. The Lobos lost 5-2 to Nebraska March 25. UNM played Fresno State two days later in a 5-2 losing effort. New Mexico did pull out a 5-2 victory over San Diego State last Friday.
UNM’s Phil Anderson and Jadon Philips are the No. 79 doubles team in the country with a 12-5 spring record.
Series notes
While TCU is 16-3 against New Mexico all-time, the Frogs haven’t bested the Lobos since 2009.
The last time the Lobos and Frogs met on campus was the 2008 MWC Championships, TCU defeated New Mexico 4-3.
Match time moved from 6 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
TCU and UNM were originally slated to play at 6 p.m., but the match time was moved to 5:30 p.m. to avoid traffic congestion from the TCU-UNM baseball game, according to a TCU Athletics release.
TCU vs. New Mexico
When: 5:30 p.m. today
Where: Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center
Follow live match results on GoFrogs.com.
