Jan. 23, 2006
THIS WEEK…The No. 48 University of New Mexico women’s tennis heads to Tempe, Ariz. this week to take on No. 24 Arizona State on January 28, 2006. The match will be held in the Whiteman Tennis Center starting at 10 a.m.
A LOOK AT ARIZONA SUN DEVILS…The Sun Devils started off their season with a huge win last week against No. 3 Texas winning 6-1.
This seasons roster features five juniors, including ranked players No.100 Rebecca Rankin and No. 100 Sabrina Capannolo, one sophomore and three freshman. They also have two ranked doubles teams of No. 27 Kady Pooler and Roxanne Clarke and No. 34 Capannolo and Rankin.
Last season Arizona State finished with an 11-8 overall record, fourth in their conference and No. 24 in the national rankings.
LAST WEEK: NORTHWESTERN INVITE…The Northwestern Invite helped prepare New Mexico for their upcoming season after playing against No. 6 Northwestern University, No. 44 Iowa University, No. 50 Florida State and Penn State.
The invitational did not count toward the team’s record but New Mexico still had some big wins.
New Mexico dominated Florida State after winning two out of three of their doubles matches on the first day. Against Northwestern, the duo of Iva Gersic and Maja Kovacek defeated Northwestern’s power team Christelle Grier and Georgia Rose 9-7.
The second day was also a good day for New Mexico as senior Kovacek defeated Iowa’s No. 21 Meg Racette on the second day of the tournament 1-6, 6-4, 6-3. UNM had the upper hand against Iowa winning four of six of their singles matches. Penn State was able to hold them to three of six of their singles matches.
Day three was a quiet day for New Mexico with only five total matches to be played. Freshman Mackenzie White won a close match against Penn State’s Doroty Dohanics, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
The final day the Lady Lobos won two out of three of their doubles matches against Penn State and Sophomore Jennifer Ryba had a win against Northwestern’s Alexis Conill 6-4, 6-2.
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).
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, Cal 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
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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.