NCAA Tournament: UNM men's tennis embraces underdog role against Stanford

UNM tennis players and supporters gathered Monday at the McDavid Lounge in the Pit to watch the NCAA men’s tennis tournament selection show.

Raucous cheers and applause filled the room when “New Mexico” dropped into the line facing the No. 4 seed. Then a quiet buzz when Stanford (22-5) filled that No. 4 slot.

“Not easy, but there was some other ones on the board that we definitely weren’t looking forward to,” first-year UNM head coach Rob Bareford said of the matchup. “Stanford’s a pleasant surprise. I mean, they’re very good, obviously, but yeah, I like the matchup.”

That the Lobos (16-8) were in the tournament was no surprise as last week they earned an automatic bid with a 4-0 win over Boise State for the Mountain West Tournament title — their first since 2009.

It’s New Mexico’s first NCAA appearance since 2021.

And UNM can go out and play loose, said top Lobos player Aram Noroozian.

“It’s a good opportunity for us to go out there and just play and enjoy the moment,” he said. “I feel like we’ve built ourselves to this point, and we deserve to play at the NCAAs, and I think we’re just going to go out there, play our hearts out and just have as much fun as we can. They’re a great team. It’s a great opportunity for us.”

Play kicks off Friday in Stanford’s home in Palo Alto, California. The winner then meets the winner of the other opening round match on site between Alabama and Pepperdine.

It’s going to take special effort to win, but it’s one UNM can produce, Bareford said.

“We’ve just got to go out, and we’ve got nothing to lose, so play our game,” he said. “We’ve got to play exactly how we just did against Boise State. And probably a little bit better than that, as well. But play as a group, play together, and play at a very high level.”

This is a moment that Albuquerque’s Georgio Samaha of Eldorado has been yearning for since he joined the program four years ago.

“We’ve been fighting for this title for three years, and finally, the fourth year, fourth time’s the charm,” he said.

Escorting the Mountain West trophy back to the South Campus was quite the experience, Samaha said.

“Taking this home for Albuquerque means a lot to me and my family and people I love,” he said. “I mean, for sure it’s special. We’ve been wanting to do that for so long, lifting up that trophy after the last match, it was special. We’ve been on the edge, so I’m glad we pulled through finally.”

Of course, meeting the Cardinal will be no stroll through the prairie. Stanford has a nine-match winning streak and is led by Samir Banajee, who is ranked seventh as a singles player.

Henry von der Schulenburg is ranked No. 71 and Max Basing is 98th. By contrast, no UNM player is in the top 125.

In doubles, the Cardinal duo of Banajee and Alex Razeghi are 50th, with von der Schulenburg and Kyle Kang 76th and Nico Godsick and Hudson Rivera 78th.

No UNM tandem is among the top 90.

The Lobos’ win over No. 42 Boise State was New Mexico’s best of the season and it lost all four of its other matches against ranked teams, including earlier in the season to the Broncos. Stanford, meanwhile, has a 16-5 record against team ranked 55th or better.

Still, the Lobos players are looking forward to the draw.

“It was very unexpected, actually,” Samaha said. “So we’ve got nothing to lose. We’re going there to have fun. Hopefully we can take out Stanford and move forward.”

Fun is the way Noroozian is approaching it, as well.

“I was excited, honestly,” he said. “I mean, it’s great opportunities for every single one of our guys to go out there and play a great match and play free, play loose. I feel like we have nothing to lose. They have everything to lose, and it’s at their place. So we can just go out there and play loose, play free and enjoy it.”