April 6, 2005
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ON THE ROAD TO THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN: The Lobos, ranked No. 59 nationally, have finished their non-conference season and are ready to head out on the road in search of their third consecutive MWC regular season title and second straight MWC Tournament title. It will be a rough road ahead with all of the MWC teams being ranked in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s top-75 poll, including San Diego State and UNLV, who are ranked ahead of New Mexico, coming in at 41st and 51st, respectively. This weekend, the Lobos will be in Provo, Utah to take on No. 55 BYU and No. 63 Utah.
Freshman Max Jones has been unbeatable for New Mexico in dual matches. Jones is currently 11-0 (3-0 at No. 1, 6-0 at No. 2, 2-0 at No. 3) in singles and has a team high 22 wins for the year. He has been a driving force in doubles, losing only three dual matches this year. He is 5-3 at No. 2 with freshman Kamil Pajkowski and 2-0 when stepping up to play with senior Ryan Stotland at No. 1.
Stotland has also been a dominant figure in the Lobo lineup. Stotland is 4-3 at No. 1 singles, 2-1 at No. 2 and 17-8 overall. But his biggest contribution comes in doubles, where he is ranked fifth in the nation with senior David Kowalski. Stotland and Kowalski are 20-6 overall and 7-1 at No. 1. Stotland has had to partner with Jones twice because of a nagging leg injury to Kowalski. Kowalski, who is 12-9 overall in singles, is 5-4 in spring dual matches and cracked into the ITA top-100, ranking 100th in singles two weeks ago.
Senior Derek Boland and junior Eric Conklin have come on strong lately, winning three straight doubles matches in which two were quick 8-3 wins. Boland has also won his last two singles matches easily at No. 6.
New Mexico, 6-5 overall, has not had the best of luck on the road this year. The Lobos are 2-4 away from Albuquerque compared to its 9-6 record last year but have arguably played a much tougher schedule.
Last year, New Mexico went 5-0 in the MWC regular season to claim sole possession of the crown. The Lobos hosted three of the conference matches however. Moving on to the tournament and getting a first round bye as the No. 1 seed, the Lobos shut out Utah before edging out San Diego State on its home court for the tournament title.
All-time, New Mexico is 21-24-1 against BYU and 24-21 against Utah. In the 2004 regular season, UNM beat Utah at Utah, 5-2 and then beat the Cougars 4-3 at Utah. The Lobos currently hold a 13-match win streak over Utah, dating back to 1994. The last time the Utes got the best of New Mexico was in 1993 with a 4-3 win. UNM has won two straight against BYU.
The Cougars take on rival and No. 63 Utah on Thursday at 1:30 before welcoming New Mexico on Friday and No. 68 Air Force on Saturday. This tripleheader marks the final conference matches for BYU before the tournament begins in San Diego on the 28th of April. BYU is in 2nd place in the Mountain West Conference with their 1-1 conference record. The Cougars got a huge win over then No. 40 UNLV last Friday. Their only conference loss was a tight 4-3 loss to the Aztecs.
BYU is one of the Mountain West Conference’s most improved teams. At the same point in the season last year, the Cougars were 6-13 as opposed to this year’s nearly reversed 13-5 record. The men in blue and white have recorded wins over No. 75 UC Irvine, No. 52 Colorado and No. 51 UNLV.
The Cougars are led this year by transfer James Ludlow. Playing at his No. 2 singles slot the sophomore has racked up an impressive 18-8 singles record while teaming up with Dominik Kaufhold to go 18-13 in doubles. Also on fire for BYU, its other sophomore, Chip Hand. The Southern California native had ripped of 10 straight wins before losing a tough 7-5,6-2 match to SDSU’s Christian Groh last week.
Utah enters Provo looking to wrap up its conference schedule after starting 0-2 in the Mountain West. Then-75th ranked San Diego State upset the Utes, 6-1 and then-40th ranked UNLV slipped past Utah, 4-3.
The Utes are 12-5 overall but 2-5 versus ranked opponents. The two wins were both 4-3 victories over Colorado and Montana State.
Utah is led by Miron Mann and Zach Ganger, who rank No. 51 in doubles. Mann and Ganger are 18-4 overall and 12-3 in No. 1 doubles. Both Mann and Ganger are tied for the team high in singles wins with 17 as Ganger posts a 17-9 record and Mann a 17-8 record. Ganger is 9-7 at No. 2 while Mann is 9-5 at No. 3
CHASING RECORDS: Senior David Kowalski is going to break records at UNM. He is currently second all-time in career doubles wins with 96, needing just three more for a school record. He is also tied sixth all-time in career singles wins with 77, trailing leaders Divan Coetzee and Pepe Caballero by 19.
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 standard for the program. In the fall, Stotland and Kowalski were the first to make it to 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.
JONES FOR MWC FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR: The University of New Mexico men’s tennis program has never had a player win the Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year award. So far this year, freshman Max Jones has made a strong case for it.
Jones is 22-6 overall in singles and 14-8 overall in doubles. In dual matches, he is 10-0 in singles with a 3-0 record at No. 1, 6-0 record at No. 2 and 2-0 mark at No. 3. In doubles he is 2-0 at No. 1 when needed to step up and play with senior Ryan Stotland due to an injury of senior David Kowalski. He is also 5-3 at No. 2 with fellow classmate Kamil Pajkowski.
Arguably, the other top-two freshmen in the conference are Utah’s Zach Ganger and BYU’s Shane LaPorte. Both of these freshmen are the only others in the MWC that have double-digit wins.
Ganger and Jones will have to wait until April 9 to square off but if results mean anything, Jones should win. Both Utah and New Mexico went to Boise, Idaho for matches with Pennsylvania and No. 47 Boise State. In those matches, both Ganger and Jones played at No. 2 against Penn’s David Lynn and Boise State’s Thomas Schoeck. Ganger lost to Lynn, 6-3, 7-5 and to Schoeck, 6-2, 6-3. Jones, on the other hand, beat Lynn 6-0, 7-6 and Schoeck 7-6, 6-4.
Jones has already been named the conference’s Player of the Week once. He earned the honor on Feb. 2 for his undefeated efforts in Seattle, Wash. against 21st-ranked Washington and 55th-ranked Michigan State. Jones is the only freshman to earn the honor this year. The last time a freshman won the honor was March 27, 2002 when UNLV’s Aviram Salomon won it just a month before claiming the Freshman of the Year honor. In the MWC’s six-year history, only five freshmen have earned the honor including UNM’s David Kowalski. San Diego State’s Oliver Maiberger, 2000 Freshman of the Year, is the only freshman to win the honor twice. The only year a freshman won the Player of the Week honor and did not win Freshman of the Year was Air Force’s Justin Mancinelli in 2001 and Kowalski in 2002. In 2002 however, Salomon also won Player of the Week and Freshman of the Year.
IN THE RANKINGS: The Intercollegiate Tennis Association has ranked the Lobos as the 59th best team in the country as of April 5. In the weeks prior, New Mexico was ranked No. 54 and 69. They started the season 65th.
The Lobo are 6-5 overall, having faced six ranked opponents so far. UNM is 2-5 against ranked foes with their biggest win being the 4-3 upset of 31st-ranked Boise State. The other ranked win was a 4-3 victory over then 55th-ranked Michigan State, which has recently dropped down to a tie for 75th with three other schools. Arguably, the Lobos toughest challenge this season was the 6-1 loss to No. 12 Washington.
New Mexico’s final five matches are all Mountain West Conference opponents. The MWC is thriving this year, having all of its members ranked in the top-75. San Diego State is the frontrunner, surging to a 41st ranking after no ranking the previous week. UNLV and BYU are currently seeded ahead of New Mexico, coming in at 51st and 55th, respectively. Just behind the Lobos are Utah and Air Force, ranking 63rd and 68th, respectively.
After the convincing upset of then-No. 8 Thomas Schoeck and Luke Shields, seniors David Kowalski and Ryan Stotland jumped back into the top-5 in the doubles rankings. After a two-week stint at No. 4, the dynamic duo has fallen one spot in this week’s poll.
Kowalski and Stotland, at 20-6 overall and 7-1 in dual matches this year, started out the spring season ranked No. 3 in the nation. They have faced nine different teams in the top-25, going 5-5 after taking on Schoeck and Shields twice. Their best win was an 8-5 win over then-No. 1 and currently No. 3 Sam Warburg and KC Corkery of Stanford in Oct. at the ICY HOT/ITA All-American Championships. They just barely missed beating the current No. 1 team in the nation, Scott Green and Ross Wilson of Ohio State, falling 9-7 in the championship match of the All-Americans.
The Lobos have two ranked opponents in their final five matches. They will face No. 24 Tyler McClung and Shannon Buck of Air Force on April 15 at Air Force and Utah’s Miron Mann and Zach Ganger, ranked No. 51, on April 9 at BYU.
The next team poll will be released on April 12 and the next singles and doubles poll will be released April 19.
LAST TIME OUT: The 51st-ranked Brown Bears came from behind to down the 54th-ranked Lobos, 5-2, in Albuquerque March 29. New Mexico fells to 4-5 while Brown improved to 15-4.
The Lobos jumped out to a 1-0 lead after solidifying the doubles point. Senior Derek Boland and junior Eric Conklin easily handed Albuquerque native Nick Goldberg and partner Rich Moss an 8-3 loss at No. 3. Freshmen Max Jones and Kamil Pajkowski netted the doubles point with an 8-6 win over Saurabh Kohli and Eric Thomas at No. 2. Fourth-ranked seniors David Kowalski and Ryan Stotland were upset at No. 1 by 32nd-ranked Phil Charm and Adil Shamasdin, 9-7.
Brown fired back to take a 2-1 lead thanks to Charm’s 6-0, 6-2 win over Pajkowksi at No. 4 and Thomas’ 6-3, 6-2 win over 100th-ranked Kowalski at No. 3.
Jones even the score and remained undefeated in dual match singles, upsetting 76th-ranked Adil Shamasdin 6-2, 6-4 at No. 1. Jones, who took over the No. 1 spot on March 19 at Colorado, improves to 9-0 in dual match singles and 20-6 overall.
With the Lobos needing just two of the three matches remaining to win, they couldn’t pull it off. Conklin, Boland and Stotland all fell in three sets after winning the first one.
New Mexico evened its record at 5-5 with a hard-fought 6-1 win over the Denver Pioneers on April 1.
The Lobos jumped out to a 1-0 lead after sweeping the double point. Kowalski and Stotland picked up their 20th doubles win of the season behind a 9-7 win at No. 1 over Viktor Zetterholm and Niklas Persson. Jones and Pajkowski also battled out for a 9-7 win at No. 2 while Boland and Conklin easily won at No. 3, 8-3.
Jones continued to stay unbeaten in dual match singles, getting a 7-5, 5-7, 11-0 win over Zetterholm at No. 2. Jones is now 21-6 overall and 10-0 in dual matches. Kowalski win 6-3, 6-2 at No. 3 while Conklin won 6-2, 6-2 at No. 5 and Boland won 6-2, 6-1 at No. 6. Pajkowski battled back from a first set loss to win 4-6, 7-6, 1-0.
Kowalski and Stotland played the final home game of their collegiate careers, winning both their singles and doubles matches to guide No. 54 New Mexico (6-5) to a 6-1 win over Santa Clara Sunday afternoon.
Kowalski and Stotland earned a quick 8-4 win at No. 1 doubles over Eric Kochanski and Bobby Rasmussen. Boland and Conklin clinched the doubles point with a 9-7 win over Ben Hidalgo and Jan Macek at No. 3.
With a 1-0 lead, the Lobos went on to take five of the six singles matches. Jones stretched his win streak to 11-games to remain undefeated in dual match singles, improving to 22-6 overall. Stotland and Kowalski battled into three sets before getting wins at No. 2 and 3, respectively. Stotland netted a 7-6, 2-6, 1-0 win over Macek while Kowalski came from behind for a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 Kochanski. Pajkowski cruised to a 6-0, 6-3 win at No. 4 over Francisco Zepponi. Boland downed A.J. Kerin, 6-1, 6-4 at No. 6.