March 7, 2006
THIS WEEK…The No. 37 University of New Mexico women’s tennis team heads to California for an intense week against No. 35 Fresno State on March 12 at 12 p.m., No. 70 Sacramento State at 10 a.m. on March 15 and No. 17 Pepperdine at 1 p.m. on March 17. The team will travel to Fresno, Calif. for an away match against Fresno and a neutral match against Sacramento. They will then go straight to Malibu, Calif. for a away match against Pepperdine.
NATIONAL RANKINGS…After defeating two unranked teams last week New Mexico remains at No. 37 in the nation.
The Mountain West Conference had a tough week in rankings but still features five ranked schools in the conference. TCU had a big drop to the No. 26 spot from last week’s No. 12. BYU also dropped from the No. 20 spot to No. 22, however they now lead conference rankings. San Diego State was the only school to move up in the rankings going from No. 54 to No. 40, only three spots behind New Mexico. UNLV also had a tough week last week moving from the No. 37 spot to No. 52.
Updated 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 the No. 49 doubles spot. Their record for the season is 4-2 and they defeated 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 FRESNO STATE BULLDOGS…
The Bulldogs are 5-6 in their season coming off a loss to MWC threat No. 13 TCU. They are on a three game losing streak before heading into matches against William and Mary University and Pennsylvania University on March 8 and 12.
This season’s roster features 3 seniors including the No. 83 ranked singles player Lucia Sainz and the No. 7 ranked doubles team of Sainz and Katharina Winterhalter, 2 juniors, 2 sophomores, and 7 freshman including the No. 61 ranked singles player Melanie Gloria. Fresno State is coached by Simon Thibodeau in his third year. Thibodeau has brought the Bulldogs to the NCAA competition and won the WAC each year in his first two years of being Fresno State’s head coach.
This will be New Mexico and Fresno States 13th time meeting with a record of 4-9. In the 2005 season Fresno State defeated New Mexico in a 4-3 match.
A LOOK AT THE SACRAMENTO STATE HORNETS…Sacramento State is currently 2-3 in their season. They have three matches before meeting New Mexico next Wednesday
Their line up features 1 senior, 1 junior, 1 sophomores and 5 freshman. They are coached by Bill Campbell. It is his 8th season with the Hornets.
This will only be the second time New Mexico faces Sacramento State, the first being last year. The Hornets came out with a win, 4-3 making the total record 0-1.
A LOOK AT THE PEPPERDINE WAVES…Pepperdine is currently 8-2 this season and are on a two game losing streak. The Waves lost No. 10 Miami and No. 2 USC last week. They will meet up with No 58 Pennsylvania and No. 16 Baylor before their match against New Mexico.
Their line up features 2 seniors, 3 juniors, 4 sophomores including the No. 26 singles player Bianca Dulgheru and 1 freshman. The Waves also feature the 20th ranked doubles team of Eva Dickes and Dulgheru and the No. 42 duo of Merve Asimgil and Sylvia Kosakowski. The head coach, Gualberto Escudero, is in his 29th season with a 487-246 record at Pepperdine.
New Mexico has met up with Pepperdine 7 times with a record of 0-7.
LAST WEEK: OHIO STATE, MARQUETTE…The New Mexico Lobos defeated Ohio State 4-3 in a neutral dual match Feb. 4 at the Halfaer Tennis Club in Milwaukee, Wis. The then continued its winning streak with the eighth consecutive win coming over Marquette (6-1) on Feb. 5. The Lobos are now 8-1 in the season after winning both dual matches of the weekend.
The Lobos came out strong in the doubles matches both days winning all three spots. Iva Gersic and Maja Kovacek teamed up at the No. 1 spot against Ohio State with Ola Abou-Zekry and Lucy Scott at the No. 2 spot. Against Marquette Gersic and Scott played at the No. 1 spot with Abou-Zekry and Kovacek at the No. 2 spot. Jennifer Ryba and Nora Quintal played together both days at the No. 3 doubles spot.
In singles action New Mexico had a tough time keeping the momentum against Ohio State. With wins from Kovacek at the No. 1 spot, Gersic at the No. 2 spot and Ryba at the No. 6 spot New Mexico was able to clinch the match 4-3.
The singles play against Marquette proved to be less of a challenge for the team as they took five of the six matches. The five matches were won in two sets each with every player holding her opponent to no more than three points a set.
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.