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Men’s Tennis Releases 2017-18 Schedule

Men’s Tennis 2017-18 Schedule

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico men’s tennis team has released the 2017-18 schedule.

New Mexico will face off against teams and players ranked in the preseason 2017-18 Oracle/ITA Division I Collegiate Rankings (released on Sept. 12). The team will host one fall tournament, one spring tournament and nine spring matches at the McKinnon Family Tennis Stadium, totaling 11 home matches this season.

The Lobos schedule includes four fall tournaments, beginning with the Aggie Invitational (Sept. 15-17) in Las Cruces, N.M. Philip Stockmar, Michael Tran and Jorge Escutia will be the three players traveling to the tournament. The team will split between the annual Lobo Invitational in Albuquerque and the 2017 ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla. (Sept. 29-Oct. 4). They will conclude their fall season at the 2017 ITA Regional Championships in Provo, Utah (Oct. 18-21).

The action will resume in January 2018 when the team kicks off their spring season. The Lobos will first travel to Lubbock, Texas to take on UT Rio Grande Valley and Texas Tech (Jan. 20- 21). The Lobos will then return home to open their first home match of the season against Northern Arizona (Jan. 27).

Five matches on the road will begin the month of February as the team travels to Iowa to take on University of Nebraska at Omaha (Feb. 3), Michigan State (Feb. 3) and Drake (Feb. 4). They will then make their way to Northern California the following weekend to face Pacific (Feb. 9) and Santa Clara (Feb. 11) before returning home to host Utah and UC Santa Barbara (Feb. 23- 25).

March begins when New Mexico hosts the annual Mountain Pacific Invitational (March 3-4). The tournament will include matches against Pacific, Wichita State, San Francisco, Brown, GCU, Lamar and Hawaii. The Lobos will have four matches on the road following the tournament against Nebraska (March 10), Wichita State (March 11), New Mexico State (March 15) and Arizona State (March 24).

Mountain West conference play will begin when New Mexico hosts Nevada on March 30 before heading west to take on Fresno State (April 1), San Diego State (April 6) and UNLV (April 8). The Lobos will wrap up conference play and the regular season with four straight home matches against Utah State (April 13), Boise State (April 15), Denver (April 20) and Air Force (April 21).

The Lobos will conclude conference play when they travel to San Diego, Calif. for the 2018 Mountain West Championships (April 26-28). Following the Mountain West Championships, the first and second rounds of 2018 NCAA Championships will take place May 12-13. Wake Forest will host the NCAA Team Championships and NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships May 17-28 at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex in Winston-Salem, N.C.

“This is a great schedule,” head coach Ben Dunbar said. “We will have lots of opportunities to play against some top ranked teams and put ourselves in a position to be playing our best tennis come the regular season, conference and beyond. We are excited to have 11 home matches this year and we will need our great Lobo community to come out and get behind the team during those matches. Our matches at home are always free to spectators and looking for some exciting promotions with free food and collateral being given out as well. This is an exciting group of players we have this year and I think the schedule reflects that. As coaches, we want to set our team up to be the best they can be and have confidence in them to excel.”

Be sure to follow and like the team on Facebook (UNM Men’s Tennis Team), Twitter (@UNMLoboMTennis) and Instagram (@unmlobotennis) for the latest news and updates throughout the season. 

ABOUT THE COACHES

Head coach Ben Dunbar enters his second season as head coach of the Lobos along with assistant coach Robin Goodman. They currently hold a 12-13 record as coaches of the program. Dunbar spent two seasons as an assistant coach at UNM, under former head coach Bart Scott from 2014-2016, and played for the Lobos from 2008-12. He is the 18th head coach in program history and the fifth to both play and coach for the program. Goodman enters his second season as assistant coach for the UNM men’s tennis team after spending two seasons at Baylor from 2014-2016.
 
ABOUT THE PLAYERS

The Lobos return six members from the 2016-17 season. The returning members include sophomore Dominic West, juniors Ricky Hernandez Tong and Michael Tran, and seniors Sean Baklini, Jorge Escutia and Bart Van Leijsen. In addition, the Lobos welcome freshmen Philip Stockmar and Tim Buttner from Germany to the new squad.