March 1, 2006
THIS WEEK…The No. 37 University of New Mexico women’s tennis team looks to extend their six game winning streak as it travels to Milwaukee, Wis. for dual matches against Marquette and Ohio State. The Lobos will take on the Golden Eagles March 4 at 10 a.m. and the Buckeye’s of Ohio State March 5 at 10 a.m. in a neutral match.
NATIONAL RANKINGS…New Mexico held strong at No. 38 in last week’s updated rankings after defeating instate rival New Mexico State University 6-1 and Oklahoma State 5-2. After having a time off this past week they are now ranked 37th in the nation.
The Mountain West Conference continues to be a strong conference with five teams listed in the ITA national rankings. TCU fell in standings this week after dropping one spot to No. 13 with a 4-2 record while BYU (6-3) continued their rise in the polls moving up one spot to No. 19. UNLV (4-2) had a tough week with a fall to No. 44 and SDSU (3-3) was able to move up in the polls one spot with a 54th ranking.
Individual and doubles rankings were updated for the first time this season on Feb. 22. Maja Kovacek remains one of UNM’s strongest players with a No. 24 ranking. Kovacek is currently 8-3 in the season. She continues to play at the No.1 and 2 singles spots for the Lobos. Teamed with doubles partner Iva Gersic, the duo is still a major threat in the doubles competition. They remain ranked 3rd in the nation with a record of 7-1 this season. This is 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. Ola Abou-Zekry and Lucy Scott are now a ranked tandem at No. 49. The duo’s record for the season is 4-2 after defeating the No. 34 team from Arizona State University and the No. 23 team from Texas Tech. This is the first ranking for both Abou-Zekry and Scott.
A LOOK AT THE MARQUETTE GOLDEN EAGLES…
The Golden Eagles are 8-3 in their season so far. They are coming off a win from Cincinnati (5-2) and a loss from No. 50 Western Michigan (7-0).
This season’s roster features 4 juniors, 2 sophomores, and 2 freshman. Marquette is coached by Jody Bronson. She is in her 18th year with the team and has a 260-195 record.
Marquette is a first time opponent for the New Mexico Lobos.
A LOOK AT THE OHIO STATE BUCKEYES…Ohio State is currently 6-3 in their season. Last weekend they defeated Louisville in a 4-3 match on Feb. 25, but were downed by No. 28 Tennessee 5-2.
Their line up features 1 senior, 2 juniors, 3 sophomores and 4 freshman. They are coached by Chuck Merzbacher. It is his 10th season with the Buckeyes.
Ohio State is also a first time opponent for the Lady Lobos.
LAST WEEK: NEW MEXICO STATE, OKLAHOMA STATE…The Lobos stretched their winning streak to six games with their wins against New Mexico State and Oklahoma State. They defeated instate rival New Mexico State 6-1 on Feb. 17 and Oklahoma State 5-2 on Feb. 18.
The Lobos began their weekend with a match against the New Mexico State and despite windy conditions came away with wins at all three spots in doubles and five of six victories in the singles matches.
New Mexico, for the first time all season, did not win the doubles point against Oklahoma State. However they rallied in singles action and came out with five of six singles points. In the doubles action the No. 1 was won by the 3rd ranked duo of Iva Gersic and Maja Kovacek against Iryna Tkachenko and Marta Tviska 8-3. Gersic also played at the No. 1 spot in singles and along with the No. 2, 3, 4 and 5 spots had victories to come out with a 5-2 win overall.
MWC PLAYER OF THE WEEK…The New Mexico women’s tennis team has been honored twice with a MWC Player of the Week award this season.
The first to be awarded was Ola Abou-Zekry on Feb. 16 after she helped the team defeat No. 60 Texas Tech and UTEP at home in the Lobo Tennis Club. Abou-Zekry won all four of her matches that weekend playing at the No. 2 spot in doubles and the No. 3 spot in singles. In doubles action Abou-Zekry and doubles partner Lucy Scott defeated the 23rd ranked team of Katja Kovacic and Erin Hunter from Texas Tech.
Iva Gersic was awarded the following week on Feb. 23 after the Lobos defeated Oklahoma State and rival New Mexico State. Gersic teamed with doubles partner Maja Kovacek at the No. 1 spot as the 3rd ranked doubles team in the nation. Together they earned victories both matches, including the only UNM win in doubles against Oklahoma State. Gersic played at the No. 2 singles spot against New Mexico State and at the No. 1 singles spot with Oklahoma State winning both matches.
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
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 at home.
(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.