Women’s Tennis Clinches Bye With 4-2 Win Over New Mexico

U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. – Despite Friday's Air Force Women's Tennis match against New Mexico carrying more postseason implications for the Falcons than for the opposition, Air Force was not handed an easy victory.

The Falcons pulled out a 4-2 win in a grind-it-out series with the Lobos in which Air Force had to earn every inch. Where the Falcons have enjoyed substantial success in doubles throughout the season, UNM denied Air Force that luxury on Friday and built as much as a 2-0 lead in the match. For the first time in the 2026 dual season, Air Force scored every point it earned in singles competition to clinch a win.

Air Force's win secured the four seed and a first-round bye for the Falcons in the upcoming 2026 Credit Union 1 Mountain West Women's Tennis Championship. Air Force also closed out the 2025-26 regular season sporting an 8-3 record against Mountain West opponents, marking a single-season program record for league wins.

Air Force dropped the doubles point for the first time in its last five matches. Senior Arianna Van Houweling and sophomore Shivaani Selvan claimed the sole Falcon doubles victory, defeating Sarah L'Allier/Ana Veroux, 6-3, on line two. From a 2-all tie in the set, Van Houweling/Selvan claimed a lead that held the rest of the way. Bagging their fourth straight win, Van Houweling/Selvan enter postseason play 8-2 in their last 10 matches and 12-5 as a pair.

In singles, after an Air Force defeat on line three (Ana Veroux def. Yule Kang, 6-1, 6-3), Falcon seniors Van Houweling and Abby Cotuna both lifted the Falcons into a tie with straight set wins on courts two and three in order. Van Houweling, taking on Lobo freshman Yu Yun Tsai, powered through a tightly-contested 6-4 first set and led by as much as 5-1 in the second before claiming a 6-3 victory and Air Force's first win of the day. Cotuna claimed victory shortly after, defeating leadoff senior Bente Vandeputte, 6-4, 6-3. Van Houweling's win caps her regular season at 12-3 and five-straight wins; Cotuna's second-consecutive victory puts her at 11-11 in 2025-26 and 7-10 in dual singles action.

Sophomore Sofia Mavor, facing Maria Matsoukatidi on court four, scored a critical three-set win to lift Air Force into 3-2 lead on the day. After opening her first set down 0-1, Mavor raced through six-straight game wins to claim a 6-1 opening set. In the second, Mavor, leading 5-4 with match point on the line, couldn't put Matsoukatidi away and saw her second set slip away, 7-5. In the third, Mavor claimed a one-game lead five times, before dispatching of Matsoukatidi, 6-4.

A potential Air Force clinch fell to courts five and six, with junior Nadia Kojonroj facing UNM's Lea Malazdra on line five and Michalski against Vianca Corley on six.

Michalski overcame Corley to clinch in a two-set thriller which only saw a single two-game advantage for either player twice in the opening set – Both belonging to Michalski at 3-1 and the eventual 7-5 finish. In the second set, both Michalski and Corley were locked in a one-game stalemate that saw both competitors claim the lead twice before falling to a tiebreak. From there, momentum favored the Falcon sophomore, as Michalski built 6-1 advantage in the tiebreak before defeating Corley, 7-3. Michalski's win secured both the match for Air Force and her first career dual singles win. On line five, Kojonroj split sets with Malazdra and threatened a match win with a 5-4 lead in the third set when Michalski clinched the match.

Up Next:
With the four seed in the 2026 Mountain West Championship locked in, Air Force Women's Tennis (11-12, 8-3 MW) awaits its opponent in the quarterfinal round, set for Thursday, Apr. 23 at 3 p.m. MT.

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