Feb. 8, 2006
THIS WEEK…The No. 39 University of New Mexico women’s tennis team (2-1) returns to the Lobo Tennis Club this week as it plays host to UTEP (4-3) Friday, Feb. 10 at 4 p.m. and No. 60 Texas Tech (3-0) Sunday, Feb. 12 at 12 p.m.
NATIONAL RANKINGS…After defeating Portland 7-0 and No. 26 Washington 4-3, New Mexico moved up in the rankings eight spots to No. 39 in the nation.
The Mountain West Conference continues to be a strong conference with five teams listed in the ITA national rankings. TCU (2-2) climbed back up in rankings from the No. 16 spot, where it fell to last week, to No. 12. BYU (5-3), now No. 21, moved up one spot as well as UNLV (4-0) with a move to No. 38. SDSU (2-1) was the only MWC team to fall in rankings this week moving from the No. 46 to No. 52.
Individual rankings remain the same until Feb. 22 when the new individual rankings will be released for the first time since they first came out in the beginning of the season. In the first individual rankings of the season Maja Kovacek made the highest singles rankings in UNM women’s tennis history and a personal best at No. 20. She passed her own record previously made last year with a No. 24 ranking. Iva Gersic was also featured in the rankings at a personal best of No. 45. As a doubles team, the combined forces of Kovacek and Gersic earned a No. 3 national ranking making it the highest ranking UNM women’s tennis has ever seen. The duo also passed their ranking from last year of No. 4 in which they beat out the No. 5 ranked All-American pair of Kovacek and former Lobo Sandy Lukowski from the 2004 season.
A LOOK AT THE UTEP MINERS…The Miners are currently 4-2 this season. Their two losses come from North Texas, 3-4 and Texas-San Antonio, 2-5.
This season’s roster features 1 senior, 1 junior, 3 sophomores, and 4 freshman. UTEP is coached by Jamie Campbell. She is in her second season as head coach for the Miners.
New Mexico has matched up against UTEP 20 times and come out with a win every time.
A LOOK AT THE TEXAS TECH RAIDERS…The Raiders start their season out undefeated (3-0) and ranked 60th in the nation. All three wins came at home matches, their matches this weekend will be their first time playing away in the 2006 season.
Their line up features 2 seniors, 1 junior, the No. 75 Tara Browning, 3 sophomores and 4 freshman. They also feature the No. 23 duo of Katja Kovacic and Erin Hunter. Head coach for Texas Tech is Cari Groce. It is her third year at Texas Tech with a record of 21-23This will be New Mexico’s 16th time matching up against Texas Tech, with their current record being an even 8-8.
LAST WEEK: PORTLAND, NO. 26 WASHINGTON…The Lobos had a strong weekend last week as they won both team matches in Seattle, Wash. including a win against No. 26 University of Washington. The University of New Mexico women’s tennis is now 2-1 after defeating the Portland Pilots 7-0 and No. 26 Washington in a close 4-3.
The Lobos had an easy match against the Portland Pilots that seemed to help them prepare for No. 26 Washington. After winning the No. 1 and 2 doubles spots earning them the doubles point New Mexico went on to win all six singles spots.
New Mexico earned the doubles point with wins at all three spots against No. 26 Washington. The Lobos 3rd ranked duo of Iva Gersic and Maja Kovacek defeated Dinka Hadzin and Victoria Brymer 9-8 at the No. 1 spot. At the No. 2 spot sophomores Ola Abou-Zekry and Lucy Scott defeated Allison Rainey and Monika Kolbovic 8-6. New Mexico found a strong No. 3 doubles team in Jennifer Ryba and Nora Quintal after they earned the third doubles point defeating Tara Simpson and Stephanie Svanfeldt 8-1.
In singles action against Washington the Lobos took a point at the No. 2, 4 and 5 spots. Iva Gersic took the first point against Simpson 6-3, 6-4 with Scott earning the second point at the No. 5 spot against Svanfeldt 6-2, 6-4. Quintal won the fourth and final point for UNM in a tough match against Washington’s Rainey 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 at the No. 4 spot clinching the team win 4-3.
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 yearsTHE 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.