BOISE, Idaho – Maja Kovacek and Tjasa Suvak had two more outstanding performances in Boise, Idaho today. Although the UNM women’s tennis team was defeated 5-2 this morning by the No. 40 nationally ranked Cougars of Washington State, both players were victorious at the No. 1 and 2 spots to give them a 2-0 singles record for the weekend. With the win, WSU is now a perfect 6-0 while UNM drops to 2-2.
“Yesterday and today we played extremely hard-fought matches against Boise State and Washinton State,” said head coach Kathy Kolankiewicz. “Both of these teams are highly ranked and we played excellent tennis against them.”
The Cougars switched their No. 1 and 2 seeded players today against the Lobos and as a result No. 2 positioned Tjasa Suvak faced No. 79 ranked Lorena Arias. Suvak had no problem with the Cougars’ top player as she beat her 7-6, 6-4. At the No. 1 spot, Maja Kovacek shared the court with WSU’s Orsolya Sallai. Kovacek took her opponent to three sets and ended the game with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 advantage.
At the No. 3 spot, Michelle Heidbrink played Chris Martinez. The Cougar opponent handed Heidbrink a 6-1, 6-0 loss. Tiffany Robertson was part of a trio of three-set games that occurred today. The Lobo sophomore came back in the second set against the Cougars’ Nora Gaal, but eventually lost the game 6-3, 4-6, 7-6.
At the No. 5 spot Maria Ruiz-Fabrega played to two sets with Anna Stefanchuk but was defeated 6-3, 6-4.
In another close game, Rachel Hatley took on Zorano Roganovic. The senior battled to a 6-3 second set after losing by the same score in the first, but was unable to overtake Roganovic and was beaten 6-0 in the final set.
In perhaps the closest game of the day, Arias and Martinez of WSU defeated the Lobo pair of Suvak and Kovacek by an extremely close 9-7 margin at the No. 1 doubles spot. Ruiz- Fabrega and Hatley also fell by a close 8-6 score to the No. 2 seeded Sallari and Roganovic. To finish off doubles play, Robertson and Heidbrink lost to Gagl and Fudor of WSU, 8-5.
UNM will return home next weekend for a pair of matches against nationally-ranked Denver and Kansas. The Lobos will take to the courts at 5 p.m. on Feb. 21 against the Pioneers and will play the Jayhawks at noon on Feb. 23. All matches will take place at the Lobo Tennis Club.i