Feb. 15, 2006
The No. 65 New Mexico Lobos (3-2) will take on the No. 73 Denver Pioneers (2-2) and the Dons of San Francisco (2-3) this weekend at the UNM Tennis Complex. UNM will return to the court Saturday after taking two weeks off.
A PREVIEW OF THE PIONEERS: Denver is 2-2 and currently ranked No. 73. Coached by sixth year man Geoff Young the Pioneers have two players ranked nationally by the ITA, No. 28 Adam Holmstrom and No. 92 Niklas Persson. Denver’s loss’s this year were to No. 56 Utah and No. 14 Washington. Their wins were against N0. 71 Montana State and No. 75 UC Santa Barbara. Holmstrom led the Pioneers this fall with an individual match record of 16-2 and teamed with Persson in doubles, they boasted a record of 11-2. The last time these two teams met UNM won 6-1. New Mexico leads the all-time series 22-12.
SCOUTING SAN FRANCISCO: Head Coach Peter Bartlett will lead histeam into Albuquerque with a 2-3 record but numbers can be decieving. The Dons have lost three matches but all three were to ranked opponents including tough losses to No. 57 Fresno St., No. 9 Peperdine, and No. 38 USD. This will mark the fourth time the Lobos and Dons have met with UNM taking the previous three.
LOBOS LAST TIME OUT: The University of New Mexico was able to win the rubber match of their weekend series at the Comcast/First Community Bank Invitational defeating the Redbirds of Illinois State 5-2 on Sunday afternoon. The victory moves the Lobos to 3-2 on the 2006 season with UNM taking two of the three matches this weekend.
The Lobos number one doubles team of Max Jones and Kamil Pajkowski remains undefeated in 2006 with an 8-6 win over Alban Renard and Nuno Jacinto of Illinois State. Johnny Parkes teamed up with Miles Bugby again at No. 3 doubles and got a win 8-5 to earn the first point of the match.
In singles action Jones, Parkes, Graeme Kassautzki, and senior Eric Conklin were each able to defeat their Redbird counterparts to give UNM a comfortable lead and eventually the win.
PLAYERS TO WATCH: The tandem of Max Jones and Kamil Pajkowski have started the 2006 spring season 5-0 at the No.1 doubles position. The two are 7-0 on the season after a 2-0 performance as a doubles team in the fall.
Sophomore Max Jones won the Mountain West Conference Freshman of The Year award in 2005 and was nationally ranked at No.97 this fall. Jones went a combined 12-9 in the fall in doubles and singles matches and has improved his spring record to 3-2 at No. 1 singles after a 3-0 performance in the First Community Bank/Comcast Invitational.