March 2, 2005
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New Mexico heads back up north as the men invade Boise, Idaho for two matches. The Lobos will take on Pennsylvania at 9 a.m. on Friday, March 4 followed by arch-rival Boise State, ranked 47th nationally, on March 5 at 5 p.m. in the Appleton Tennis Center. The matches will be the second trip home for Boise native, senior Ryan Stotland.
New Mexico, 3-2 overall, have had limited success on the road this season. They started the season at Boise State, falling to Colorado in the semifinals of the ITA Mountain Regional Playoffs. The Lobos then headed to Seattle, Wash. where they fell to No. 21 Washington but upset No. 42 Michigan State. They then went to Malibu, Calif. to face 14th-ranked Pepperdine and 29th-ranked Arizona but didn’t get to play either teams due to the unusal rain that hammered Southern California. Currently, the Lobos are best when at home (2-0) and are 0-1 at away sites and 1-1 at neutral sites.
Fortunately for New Mexico, Penn has equally struggled on the road. The Quakers are 6-2 overall with a 4-0 record at home. They are 1-1 away and at neutral matches. Their last match was a 4-3 loss at then-75th ranked Army. The only other ranked team that Penn has faced this season was in the fall, which resulted in a 6-1 loss to No. 19 Harvard on a neutral court.
Mikhail Bekker will most likely be the Quakers top singles competitor. Having played three different men at No. 1, head coach Mark Riley has had the most success with Bekker who is 3-0 in that slot. David Lynn or Tas Tobias should play at No. 2 with Lynn already 2-2 and Tobias 1-1 in that position. Four different Quakers have seen time at No. 3, but most recently was Justin Gordon, who is 1-0. Todd Lecher holds the best record, 4-0, of all three guys who have made appearances at No. 4 and Craig Rubin is tops at No. 5 with his 3-0 record. Four different men have competed at No. 6 for Riley, but James Fairbanks is a perfect 2-0 in that spot and hasn’t lost a dual match in any spot this season.
Riley is also very creative when it comes to his doubles lineups, having used 14 different combinations throught his eight dual matches. No. 1 doubles should be either Anthony Pu and Justin Lavner or Tobias and Joseph Lok. Lynn and Bekker, Lecher and Fairbanks, Lavner and Fairbanks or Lecher and Brandon O’Gara could play at No. 2. With five different tandems having seen time at No. 3, Lecher has seen the most at three matches while Rubin, Lynn, Bekker and O’Gara have all played two.
New Mexico has taken on the Quakers twice since the turn of the century. The Lobos hold a 2-0 series lead, beating Penn 7-0 in 2000 and 5-2 in 2001.
The Boise State match on Saturday will be highly anticipated by the Lobos, having lost five of the last six meetings including four straight. Last time they met, Boise State handed UNM its one and only home loss of the 2004 season. In the rankings, the Broncos have been the top team in the region for the last five years. In the most recent ITA rankings, Boise State’s Thomas Schoeck and Luke Shields snatched the top ranking in the region away from seniors David Kowalski and Ryan Stotland. Schoeck and Shields are now ranked eighth in the nation while Kowalski and Stotland are ninth. If those aren’t enough reasons for Kowalski and Stotland to want revenge, Schoeck and Shields upset Kowalski and Stotland, 9-8 in the semifinals of the 2004 Wilson/ITA Mountain Regional Championships in Oct.
This season, the Broncos are 11-4 overall including a perfect 5-0 at home. Most recently, they downed the Denver Pioneers, 5-2 in Boise. Their four losses came to No. 1 Baylor, No. 9 LSU, No. 12 Kentucky and No. 27 Virginia Commonwealth.
The Broncos will most likely be led by Shields at No. 1 singles. The highly-touted freshman from Colorado is ranked 27th in the nation in singles and is 3-5 at No. 1. Schoeck should play No. 2 singles for head coach Greg Patton, having competed in that spot in seven of the team’s 15 dual matches this season for a 6-1 record. Matias Silva should round out the top-3 since he has spent the most time in that position for Patton. Silva is 5-3 there this season and if he plays there Saturday, could set up the rematch of the 2003 semifinal match of the ITA Mountain Regional Championships between him and Kowalski, which Silva won in three sets. Ikaika Jobe should play No. 4 singles while Nils Klemann or Brent Werbeck could be at No. 5. If Klemann is fifth, Werbeck would be the most likely choice for sixth but Patton has also played Eric Roberson and Beck Roghaar there this spring.
Senior David Kowalski needs just seven more doubles wins for a new UNM record. |
CHASING RECORDS: Senior David Kowalski is going to break records at UNM. He is currently second all-time in career doubles wins with 92, needing just 7 more for a school record. He is also seventh all-time in career singles wins with 74, trailing leaders Divan Coetzee and Pepe Caballero by 22.
In the poll for Jan. 13, Kowalksi and classmate Ryan Stotland were ranked No. 3 in the nation in doubles by the ITA. That ranking made them the highest in the history of the men’s tennis program.
This duo also set a new stardard for the program. In the fall, Stotland and Kowalski were the first to make it to the the finals of a nation tournament, taking the stage at the ICY HOT/ITA All-American Championships. They are also aiming to be the first All-Americans for UNM since 1999.
IN THE RANKINGS: Seniors David Kowalski and Ryan Stotland are ranked ninth in the nation for doubles according to the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) poll released Feb. 22nd.
The UNM team fell three more spots to 69th in the March 1 poll.
The Lobos started their extremely tough spring schedule Jan. 22 at the ITA Region VII Team Playoffs hosted by Boise State. New Mexico wass scheduled to face 11 nationally-ranked teams this year but the total drops to nine with the cancellation of the Pepperdine and Arizona matches. They have already faced Colorado, Washington and Michigan State this season. In the latest rankings released on March 1, Colorado came in at No. 74, Washington at No. 21, and Michigan State at No. 42. The Mountain West Conference is currently represented by No. 64 BYU, the 69th-ranked Lobos, No. 71 UNLV and No. 72 Utah.
The next team poll and the next singles and doubles poll will be released March 8.
LAST TIME OUT: The Lobos netted two wins on their home court, beating New Mexico State, 7-0 and Sacramento State, 6-1.
The shutout of New Mexico State was the first since 1996. The Lobos moved to 83-9 all-time against the Aggies and seniors Ryan Stotland and David Kowalski end their careers unbeated in team play against NMSU.
The First State Bank/Comcast Invitational got under way with three tight doubles matches. Senior Derek Boland and junior Eric Conklin broke first, going on to the 8-5 win over Luis Avila and Jeff Pfeifer at No. 3. Stotland and Kowalski, ranked ninth nationally, finished shortly after with an 8-5 win at No. 1 over Danilo Zivanovic and Ben Archer-Clowes. The freshmen tandem of Max Jones and Kamil Pajkowski completed the doubles sweep coming from behind to win 9-8(5) over Jorge Williams and Stjepan Beg.
Freshman Max Jones is still undefeated in dual match singles action. |
Stotland quickly netted the Lobos second point with Archer-Clowes retiring after Stotland claimed the first set, 6-4 at No. 1. Kowalski got his first dual match win of the season after easily handling Williams at No. 3, winning 6-1, 6-1. Jones sealed the Lobos win with his 6-2, 6-2 rout of Zivanovic at No. 2 to stay undefeated this spring season.
With the match already won, Boland picked up his first singles win as a Lobo, downing Pfeifer 6-3, 6-1 at No. 6. Conklin followed with his first singles win in dual matches, battling Avila for the 6-4, 6-3 win at No. 5. Pajkowski completed the shutout with his come-from-behind victory over Beg. Pajkowski won at No. 4, 4-6, 6-2, 11-9.
The come-from-behind win over Sacramento State was New Mexico’s third consecutive win and ninth straight at home, dating back to last year.
Doubles action started out with Warwick Foy and Ramon Perez besting senior Derek Boland and Eric Conklin, 8-5 at No. 3. Ninth-ranked seniors David Kowalski and Ryan Stotland evened the score with an 8-4 win at No. 1 over Joakim Rydberg and Juniad Hossein to stay unbeated in doubles action this spring.
Clinching the doubles point laid on the shoulders of freshmen Max Jones and Kamil Pajkowski. The tandem started off well, taking a 4-3 advantage but Peter Farkas and Matt Jones refused to lose, winning the next three games to take a 6-4 lead. Jones and Pajkowski battled back to even the score a 7-7 but couldn’t take advantage, falling 9-8 (5).
Jones quickly erased the Lobo deficit, handing Hossein a 6-3, 6-4 loss at No. 2 singles. Kowalski pushed the Lobos to a 2-1 advantage with his 6-2, 6-4 win over Rydberg. Conklin set the Lobos up for the win with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Foy at No. 5. Stotland finished off the Hornets, downing Jones at No. 1, 7-5, 7-5.
With the match already won, the Lobos looked to sweep the singles for the second straight match. Boland took care of Farkas at No. 6, winning 7-5, 6-3. Again, the pressure was on Pajkowski, who didn’t let the fans down, beating Perez 6-4, 6-4.