April 21, 2005
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MWC CHAMPIONSHIPS: The 56th-ranked Lobos are in sunny San Diego for the Mountain West Conference Championships. New Mexico, the reigning champions, are seeded third and will face sixth-seed Air Force to open play. The match is the first of the day on Thursday, April 28 at 11 a.m. PDT. With a win, the Lobos would advance to play second-seeded BYU, who received an opening-round bye. That game would be the first game of the day on Friday, April 29, also slated for an 11 a.m. PDT start.
REACHING THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN: The Lobos wrapped up MWC regular season play last weekend, competing in three matches at Air Force. They finished the season 3-2, the third best record in the conference this year. It is the first time since the 2002 season that the Lobos did not at least share a portion of the regular season title. The two losses also tie the most losses UNM has ever suffered since joining the MWC. They went 3-2 in 2002 and 2-2 in 2000.
LOBOS LAST TIME OUT: The Lobos won two of their final three matches to end the regular season in Colorado Springs, Colo. New Mexico beat Air Force, 5-2 on Friday, lost 5-2 to San Diego State on Saturday and downed UNLV, 5-2, on Sunday. Senior David Kowalski and junior Eric Conklin won all three of their singles matches while Kowalski and classmate Ryan Stotland won all three of their doubles matches.
FINDING OUT THE FALCONS: Air Force is on a five-match losing streak after the MWC regular season ended last weekend. The Falcons are 16-9 overall and 0-5 in the MWC. They have played eight ranked teams this year for a 3-5 record. Shannon Buck, the highest-ranked MWC singles player at No. 53, leads the Falcons with a 22-2 overall record, going 18-1 at No. 1 singles. Tyler McClung is just as solid at No. 2, posting a 17-9 overall record after an 11-7 mark at No. 2. In doubles, Buck and McClung rank 24th with a 16-2 overall record and 11-1 mark at No. 1.
UNM VS. AIR FORCE: New Mexico holds a 25-2 series advantage over the Falcons, who have not beaten the Lobos since 1989 as UNM has won eight straight. Last time these two met was in Colorado Springs, Colo. on April 15 with UNM getting a 5-2 win.
KOWALSKI BREAKS RECORD: Senior David Kowalski set a new UNM record for most career doubles wins on Sunday against UNLV. Kowalski, now with 99 doubles wins, surpasses Pepe Caballero’s record of 98 set between 1995-99.
Kowalski is also fifth all-time in career singles wins with 81, trailing leaders Divan Coetzee and Pepe Caballero by 15.
RETURNING TO THE RANKINGS: Senior David Kowalski returned to the ITA’s singles rankings this week, coming in at 98. Kowalski is 16-10 overall and 9-5 in dual match singles. Against ranked opponents, Kowalski has posted a 2-1 record, getting a 6-2, 0-6, 6-2 win over 12th-ranked Jamil Al-Agba of USC on Oct. 6 and a 6-4, 6-7(5), 10-5 win over 100th-ranked Armando Carrascosa on Saturday. His only ranked loss was on Jan. 28 at Washington to Christoph Palmanshofer, 6-3, 4-1 when Kowalski retired.
Senior Derek Boland (left) has won six of his last seven singles matches while junior Eric Conklin (right) won his last three. |
ON THEIR WAY TO GREATNESS: Seniors David Kowalski and Ryan Stotland are wrapping up a memorable season. They have already set new highs for the UNM program and show no signs of stopping.
In the poll for Jan. 13, Kowalksi and 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 being the first to make it to the finals of a nation tournament in the fall. They took the stage at the ICY HOT/ITA All-American Championships and came up just shy of the title, falling 9-7.
They are also aiming to be the first All-Americans for UNM since 1999. In order to do so, they will need to make it to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships hosted by Texas A&M.
Currently ranked 13th in the nation, they are 23-8 overall and 10-3 at No. 1 doubles. Kowalski and Stotland are 5-7 against ranked doubles teams including a 4-3 mark against teams currently ranked above them.
CONKLIN FINISHING STRONG: Junior Eric Conklin finished the regular season on an extremely high note. He won his last three matches at the No. 5 singles spot, two of them coming in three sets. Overall, he has won 16 of his 27 career singles wins this year, including seven in his first year of dual match competition.
MARVELOUS RUN FOR Max Jones: Freshman Max Jones was nearly perfect for New Mexico to start the dual match season. Jones won 11 consecutive matches to start the spring. He is currently 12-4 (3-4 at No. 1, 7-0 at No. 2, 2-0 at No. 3) in singles and has a team-high 23 wins for the year. He has been a driving force in doubles, losing only five dual matches this year. He is 8-5 at No. 2 with freshman Kamil Pajkowski and 2-0 when stepping up to play with senior Ryan Stotland at No. 1. Overall Jones is 19-10 in doubles matches.
SENSATIONAL STOTLAND: Senior Ryan Stotland has also been a dominant figure in the Lobo lineup. Stotland is 5-3 at No. 1 singles, 4-3 at No. 2 and 20-10 overall. But his biggest contribution comes in doubles, where he is ranked 13th in the nation with senior David Kowalski. Stotland and Kowalski are 23-8 overall and 10-3 at No. 1. Stotland has had to partner with Jones twice because of a nagging leg injury to Kowalski.
BOLAND BREAKS OUT: Senior Derek Boland has come on strong lately, winning six of his last seven singles matches in which four were quick two-set wins where Boland won six sets by a score of 6-2 or less. Boland recently had a three-match doubles win streak in which he won two of them by scores of 8-3. He evened out his record at 8-8 this spring.
ROCKY ROAD: New Mexico, 9-7 overall, has not had the best of luck on the road this year. The Lobos are 5-6 away from Albuquerque compared to its 9-6 record last year but have arguably played a much tougher schedule. When the season is over, New Mexico will have played 13 ranked opponents, including four in the top-50. The Lobos have also played fewer home games, playing nine last year compared to just five this year.
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.
Freshman Max Jones could be UNM’s first MWC Freshman of the Year. |
Jones is 23-10 overall in singles and 19-10 overall in doubles. In dual matches, he is 12-4 in singles with a 3-4 record at No. 1, 7-0 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 8-5 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 with a similar number of wins as Ganger is 19-13 overall while LaPorte is 19-11.
Ganger and Jones finally squared off in Provo, Utah on April 9 with Jones getting the 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 win at No. 2. Also, 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 did not get to face LaPorte when UNM took on BYU because Jones was playing at No. 1 while LaPorte was at No. 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 56th best team in the country as of April 19. In the weeks prior, New Mexico was ranked No. 60, 59, 54 and 69. They started the season 65th.
The Lobo are 9-7 overall, having faced eight ranked opponents. UNM is 2-6 against ranked foes with their biggest win being the 4-3 upset of 30th-ranked Boise State. The other ranked win was a 5-2 victory over 54th-ranked UNLV last Sunday. Arguably, the Lobos toughest challenge this season was the 6-1 loss to No. 13 Washington. Overall, UNM is 2-4 against teams ranked above them and 1-2 against MWC ranked teams.
As a whole, five different Lobos have faced 18 ranked singles opponents. The Lobos hold a 5-13 record over all, 1-3 against MWC members, with senior David Kowalski holding the only winning mark at 2-1. Senior Ryan Stotland is 1-5, freshman Max Jones is 2-7 while junior Eric Conklin and freshman Kamil Pajkowksi are both 0-1.
Kowalski returned to the rankings, coming in at No. 98 this week. It is the second time this year he has made the list, coming in at 100 on Mar. 22. His best ranking ever was on Jan. 13, 2004, placing 72nd.
Kowalski and Stotland, at 23-8 overall and 10-3 in dual matches this year, started out the spring season ranked No. 3 in the nation. They have faced 11 different teams in the top-35, going 5-7 after taking on Schoeck and Shields twice. Their best win was an 8-5 win over then-No. 1 and currently No. 4 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 next team poll and singles and doubles poll will be released April 26.