UPCOMING – The Lobo women’s tennis team will come up against fierce competition this weekend when they take to the courts against nationally ranked Boise State (#57) and Washington State (#40) in Boise, Idaho. UNM (2-0) will face Boise State first, on Friday, Feb. 14 at 2 p.m., before matching up with the Cougars of WSU on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 10 a.m.
DEFEATING UT-SAN ANTONIOThe University of New Mexico women’s tennis team won a hard-fought dual-match against the Roadrunners of Texas-San Antonio on Feb. 2 on the campus of UTEP. The Lobos went 2-1 in doubles play and won three singles matches at the No. 4, 5 and 6 spots to earn a 4-3 win. Maria Ruiz-Fabrega and Rachel Hatley were the only two Lobos to be victorious in both singles and doubles play against UTSA.
Despite threatening winds that approached 30 mph, the Lobos (2-0) were solid in doubles. At the No. 2 spot, Hatley and Ruiz-Fabrega handed Lesaar and Erausquin a 8-3 loss, while Tiffany Robertson and Michelle Heidbrink convincingly defeated Romanenko and Rossikhina at the No. 3 position, 8-2. The Lobos’ doubles pair of Tjasa Suvak and Maja Kovacek suffered its first loss of the 2003 season at the No.1 position to UTSA’s Bouffler and Fuhrig. The duo dropped the match 8-5.
The Lobos were shutdown at the top three singles spots against the Roadrunners. UNM’s No. 1 seeded player, freshman Maja Kovacek, was defeated at the hands of UT-San Antonio’s Chantal Lesaar in two sets, 6-1, 7-6. At the No. 2 position junior sensation Tjasa Suvak battled to three sets, before losing 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 to Svenja Fuhrig. Michelle Heidbrink and Nicole Bouffler may have played the closest two sets of the day. The two fought to a pair of 7-6 sets, both of which went in Bouffler’s favor.
At the No. 4 spot, Tiffany Robertson took Paula Erausquin to three sets before finalizing the game at 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. Fifth ranked Rachel Hatley also played to three sets with opponent Nadezda Rossikhina. The Lobo junior defeated the Roadrunner 7-5 in the first set before Rossikhina came back in the second to win 4-6. The final set was secured by Hatley as she solidly beat her competitor 6-2. Maria Ruiz-Fabrega rounded out the Lobo-Roadrunner battle. The Albuquerque native outplayed UTSA’s Barbara Mooney and beat the sophomore 6-4, 6-4 in two sets.
The Lobos’ second match-up of the day, which was to be played against UTEP at 2 p.m., was cancelled due to high winds that exceeded 50 mph at some points during the afternoon. A makeup date has yet to be set.
LOOKING AT THE COMPETITIONBoise State is a perfect 4-0 in spring play. The Broncos have defeated Utah, Gonzaga, Idaho State and Montana State all by scores of 7-0. BSU will host the Rainbow Wahines of Hawai’i on Feb. 11 before they play New Mexico on Feb. 14.
The last time the Lobos and Broncos met was in November at the New Mexico Fall Invite. The teams went 3-3 in singles, with Boise State’s doubles pairs beating all three of UNM’s pairs for the 4-3 win.
The Broncos are led by No. 73 nationally-ranked Renate Stoop who finished off the fall season with a 17-3 singles mark at the No.1 spot. Also finishing with strong fall records were No. 2 seeded Jemima Hayward (12-4) and No. 3 seeded Alissa Ayling (9-3).
The Bronco doubles team of Hayward/Polowski were 14-4 in fall play and defeated UNM’s No. 1 team of Suvak/Kovacek at the New Mexico Fall Invite.
The Cougars of Washington State have compiled a 3-1 spring record to date. They fell 7-0 in their first dual-match of the year to No. 38 Alabama, but have been victorious every since against Penn State (4-3), Hawai’i (7-0) and Long Beach State (6-1).
Mexico native, Lorena Arias, is ranked No. 77 by the I.T.A and is the Cougars’ strongest singles player. Her spring record sits at 2-2 while No. 2 seeded Orso Sallai also has a 2-2 record. The No. 45 ranked doubles team of Arias/Martinez have a 3-1 spring record, with its only loss coming against a pair from the national powerhouse Crimson Tide of Alabama.
LOBOS IN THE RANKINGSSeveral Lobos are listed in the Fall Central Region rankings including freshman Maja Kovacek who is seeded at the No. 7 spot, junior Tjasa Suvak at No.10 and sophomore Michelle Heidbrink at No. 23. In doubles, the duo of Rachel Hatley and Maria Ruiz-Fabrega earned the highest Lobo doubles ranking at No. 9, while the pair of Maja Kovacek and Tjasa Suvak sits close behind at No.11.
The UNM tennis team, after two dual-matches against NAU and UTSA, has dropped to No. 64 in the nation. On Jan. 29, the Lobos were listed at No. 61 in the I.T.A. Rankings. The squad finished off the 2002 season at No. 60 in the national polls and No. 7 in the Central Region.
TJASA’S TALENTJunior Tjasa Suvak was invited, along with other top NCAA tennis players, to compete in the Riviera All-American Championships in Pacific Palisades, Calif. earlier this fall based on her 2002 performance. She made it past two round of competition at the championships before falling to nationally-ranked Catherine Lynch of California in a tough match. The event gave Suvak the chance to compete at an extremely high level with the best collegiate tennis players in the nation.
ACADEMIC ACCOLADES Last season, seven out of the eight UNM women’s tennis players received spots on the All-MWC Academic Team. The players were Courtney Choate, Tjasa Suvak, Maria Ruiz-Fabrega, Tiffany Robertson, Michelle Heidbrink, Regula Comtesse and Rachel Hatley. Additionally, Suvak, Ruiz-Fabrega and Robertson received MWC Academic Scholar Medals for obtaining a G.P.A. of 3.5 or above.
AWARDS ON THE COURTUNM’s Tjasa Suvak and Sandy Lukowski were honored with All-MWC singles awards at the conclusion of the 2002 season. Suvak finished the year with a 23-14 singles record while Lukowski went 19-16. The doubles team of Sandy Lukowski and Tiffany Robertson were recognized on the All-MWC doubles team. The duo accumulated a 13-12 record, beating several ranked pairs from the west and central regions.
2003 SCHEDULEThe New Mexico squad will square off against its MWC opponents towards the end of the season after several weeks of playing strictly non-conference teams. Reigning MWC title holders UNLV (#20) and second-place finisher San Diego State (#30) may offer the biggest challenge to the Lobos this year. In addition, BYU and Utah will be gunning for a top spot in the MWC.
Almost every non-conference team the Lobos face this spring is ranked nationally according to the ITA’s 2002 year-end rankings. New Mexico will meet up with South Alabama (#26), Virginia Commonwealth (#17) and Tulane (#64)). The Lobos will also take to the court to face Washington State (#29). In addition, the Lobos will match up against Central Region competitors Kansas (#37), Boise State (#53) and New Mexico State (#68).
2003 Women’s Tennis Dual Match Standings
|Team(rank)| W|L|PCT.|W|L|PCT.||New Mexico|0|0|0|2|0|1.000||UNLV|0|0|0|2|0|1.000||Utah|0|0|0|2|1|.667||San Diego State|0|0|0|1|1|.500||Air Force|0|0|0|1|2|.333||BYU|0|0|0|1|2|.333||Colorado State|0|0|0|0|0|.000||Wyoming|0|0|0|0|2|.000|