Men's Tennis Monthly Newsletter - October & November 2017 Update
SPRING 2018 MEN’S TENNIS SCHEDULE
Dear Lobo Tennis Fans,
It’s that time of the month where I am ready to update you with everything that’s been going on with the Lobo men’s tennis team in the last month.
Things have just started to settle down and the guys are back working out on the 8-hour clock. This mean they get two individuals each week and then six hours of workouts with our strength and conditioning coach Andrew Stuart, who works incredibly hard to provide an extremely professional environment for the guys to train in. I am extremely proud of the work we have put in and the results that the guys have started to see this fall. This group has been phenomenal since they arrived on campus in August and they are not scared to push their limits. For us to be ready by January, they need to continue with their same attitudes. The next 10 weeks until season starts is always pivotal for every team and it raises the question if they can continue to improve with less practice? For us, we have challenged the guys to go out, craft their games and return to full practice in January ready to rock n’ roll. Our first match of the Spring 2018 season puts us up against UT Rio Grande Valley in Lubbock, Texas on January 20th. It’s easy to look too far ahead and for now we are focusing on improving one day at a time.
Looking back on the last month, we had a very successful run at the ITA Mountain Regional Championships in Provo, Utah. We were the only team with two guys representing a team in the quarterfinals, and Ricky continued his stellar form this fall by reaching the finals. As a reward for his results, he earned an automatic selection to the ITA Fall National Championships in Palm Desert, Calif. at the JW Marriott. This effectively was a draw with the top 64 players in the nation, and Ricky came back from this event with a renewed sense of what he needs to do to push on and be able to compete at this level year round. It was a great experience to have a Lobo at the Fall National Championships once again. Ricky finished the fall season ranked No. 72 in singles of the ITA national rankings (as of Nov. 15). It’s a small piece of individual success but I think all the guys can take confidence from this as they get to play with Ricky every day. Overall, the fall was very successful and I think it gives us a great platform to spring into the 2018 season.
We are happy to have our big man (Bart Van Leijsen) back on campus soon after he took the fall semester off to travel back home to the Netherlands. He will be our senior leader this year and will be graduating in May, along with local Lobo legend Sean Baklini and our talented lefty Jorge Escutia. All three have a MW Conference championship ring from their freshman year regular season championship and we are excited to hopefully add another to their collection. They will graduate with their Bachelor’s degrees in Business and Sports and Exercise Science respectively and I am extremely proud of all three of them. However, I’m not ready to wish away their senior year just yet and I feel like they have some unfinished business. For now, the guys are going to focus on keeping our standards high, both the court and in the classroom, and finishing out the fall semester/season strong.
I want to thank all of our supporters for your continued support. This team can only operate each year at such a high standard because of the support you provide. We have repeated supporters every year, many of which don’t want any recognition, but without you, we couldn’t have this program. You know who you are and you are so valuable to the UNM Men’s Tennisprogram. Our alumni is really starting to activate and get behind this group and we also thank you so much.
I will write another update soon. I get lots of questions from our tennis community about how you can help us the most. I respond in two ways: The first is to come and watch our student athletes play whenever and wherever you can. Secondly, if you were in a position to help us financially, it would have a tremendous impact on our program and the student athletes experience this upcoming year. I wanted to send out the online portal for people to make donations directly to our budget if anyone is interested in helping out our program. Any donation made to our baseline club would go directly to providing our student athletes with an enhanced experience in our 2017-18 season. Our “baseline club” information can be found here: https://www.unmfund.org/fund/mtennis/
I am also attaching a copy of our schedule for the spring to this message, we hope to see you out at our matches this coming year. Another date to mark on your calendars: Saturday January, 13th 2018. This day will be our annual UNM Alumni Match fundraiser so come and watch the “old boys” compete with our current crop of Lobos.
As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me at bdunbar@unm.edu. I am always happy to hear from our community.
Go Lobos!
Ben Dunbar
Head Men’s Tennis Coach
The University of New Mexico (’12)
#GOLOBOS
bdunbar@unm.edu
Mailing Address:
Ben Dunbar – Men’s Tennis
The University of New Mexico Lobos
Colleen J. Maloof Administration Building
1 University of New Mexico
MSC04 2680
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001