Jan. 18, 2006
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THIS WEEK…The No. 48 University of New Mexico women’s tennis travels to Evanston, Ill. to kick off the 2006 regular season at the Northwestern Invite. The tournament is set to be played at the Combe Indoor Tennis Center Jan. 21-23.
ON THE ROSTER…The Lobos feature nine players on the roster this season with one seniors (Maja Kovacek), four juniors (Elisa Bonner, Allison Davis, Iva Gersic and Nora Quintal), three sophomores (Ola Abou-Zekry, Jennifer Ryba and Lucy Scott) and one freshman (Mackenzie White). The UNM tennis team is coached by head coach Kathy Kolankiewicz who is entering her 21st year with the Lobos and assistant coach Roy Cañada who is entering his tenth year.
The Lobos lost two seniors from the 2004-05 squad (Michelle Heidbrink and Tiffany Robertson).
NATIONAL RANKINGS…New Mexico earned a team No. 48 national ranking from the ITA for the start of the New Year. There were five teams from the Mountain West Conference that were ranked in the top 50 this season. The new edition to the MWC, TCU is ranked No. 14 while BYU is No. 21 this year. UNLV received a No. 41 ranking and SDSU comes in right before UNM at No. 47. The highest ranking New Mexico has ever achieved is a No. 21 mark in their 2004 season.
In the individual rankings Maja Kovacek makes history at UNM and has another personal best at the No. 20 position. This is New Mexico’s first ever singles ranking in the top 20. Kovacek started off in preseason rankings at No. 30. Junior Iva Gersic joins Kovacek in the national rankings at her personal best as the 45th-nationally ranked player.
The duo of Kovacek and Gersic has combined to create an explosive doubles team. The ITA recognized their talents as a team an honored them with a No. 3 ranking in the nation this season. They just beat out their own personal best of No. 4 from last season making this the highest ranking the women’s tennis team has ever seen.
Fall Central Regional Rankings: Kovacek and Gersic were ranked No. 1 as a doubles team. In singles, Kovacek was ranked No. 3 and Gersic was ranked No. 4 for New Mexico.
2005 FALL REVIEW…The 2005 fall season proved to be a good learning experience for the team. After dealing with illness and injury the Lobos look forward to proving themselves in the spring. The team went to three invites (UNM, California Berkeley and SDSU), competed at the ITA Central Championships, and had Maja Kovacek and Iva Gersic compete in two of ITA’s most prestigious national events (Riviera All-American Championships and the National Individual Indoor Championships.)
DANGEROUS DUO…The doubles team of Maja Kovacek and Iva Gersic had a very eventful fall season as they competed in two of the ITA’s national events. In October, the pair was selected for the second year in a row to compete in the doubles main draw at the Riviera All-American Championships. Both players were also selected as singles players, Kovacek in the singles main draw and Gersic in the singles qualifying tournament. While at the tournament, the No. 3 New Mexico team defeated the No. 19 Indiana duo in the first round of doubles competition. Kovacek and Gersic then went on to defeat the Cal Berkeley in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, the Lobo tandem fell to No. 2 Notre Dame, but earned a bid to the National Individual Indoor Championships in November.
At the indoor championships, Kovacek and Gersic defeated the team from South Florida in the first round of the doubles main draw. The duo went on to be recognized among the top two doubles teams in the nation after advancing to the semifinals round with a win against TCU. They lost by default to Stanford in the semifinal round.
DID YOU KNOW…
Five out of nine players on the UNM women’s tennis team are international student-athletes.
Junior Iva Gersic currently holds the record for highest career winning percentage (123-25, .831)
Senior Maja Kovacek holds the record for most combined single season wins (singles and doubles) at 64 and most career wins in doubles.
The outdoor tennis courts at the Lobo Tennis Club were fully replaced in July 2004.
The Lobos have maintained above a 3.0 G.P.A. for 28 straight semesters and above a 3.2 G.P.A. for 19 consecutive semesters.
In the spring of 2004, the Lobos captured their fifth undefeated home record in the last eight years and their 18th straight home win.
In 2004, New Mexico won its first Mountain West Conference regular season title with a perfect 7-0 record in conference play.
New Mexico has had a winning record for the past 9 years
2005 OUTLOOK…The Lobos enter the 2006 season with great hopes that they will carry on the success from last season. Returning as the 2005 Mountain West Conference regular season semifinalists, No. 4 in the Central Region and No. 48 in the nation, New Mexico definitely carries confidence into the new year. The 2005 fall season was a learning season for the Lobos as they lost two key players in seniors Michelle Heidbrink and Tiffany Robertson. New players showed true potential and the veterans showed they were ready to make up for the talent that was lost. After leading the Lobos last year to a 15-9 record, and a No. 50 national ranking head coach Kathy Kolankiewicz is optimistic on how far the squad can go in her 21st season of coaching at UNM. She believes that the schedule will allow the team to gain the higher national rankings than last year. With two nationally ranked players on the team and the addition of two new players she is looking forward to the regular season ahead.
THE SCHEDULE…Once again New Mexico’s schedule is packed with ranked opponents, non-conference and conference. With the minimal home matches this year the Lobos have a full and difficult schedule ahead of them.
The Lobos host only five home matches at the Lobo Tennis Club (two non-conference and three conference), while the rest are to be played on the road.
Conference games will be played toward the end of New Mexico’s schedule, starting at the end of March.
(Head coach Kathy Kolankiewicz on this season’s schedule):This year is probably one of our best schedules ever, if not the best. I really made a point to try to schedule as many top-50 teams as I could possibly get. We’re going to be traveling a little bit more than we usually do because of that. It’s more difficult to get those teams to come here so we’re playing 80 percent on the road and 20 percent here.
(Head coach on the addition of TCU to the MWC)One of our goals is always to win conference and it just got a whole lot harder with the addition of TCU. They finished 19th last year and they’re looking to be a top-10 team this year with three players ranked in the top-30. Their No. 1 player on the team won the All-American. So TCU has made it that much harder to win conference, but the competition is great. Women’s tennis in the Mountain West Conference is very strong this year, it was not a surprise to see five teams ranked in the top-50.