March 22, 2006
THIS WEEK…The No. 38 University of New Mexico Lobos have their first three conference games this weekend against Air Force, Colorado State and Wyoming. They are all neutral matches played in Fort Worth, Texas at the Bayard H. Freidman Tennis Center. The Lobos face the Air Force Falcons on March 24 at 2 p.m., the Colorado State Rams on March 25 at 10 a.m. and the Wyoming Cowgirls March 26 at 10 a.m.
NATIONAL RANKINGS…After taking a tough dip in the rankings last week to No. 59, New Mexico came back up to the No. 38 spot according to the weekly FILA rankings.
The Mountain West Conference has five ranked teams as they begin their conference schedule this week. TCU is the highest ranked team in the conference at No. 22 after moving up four spots from its previous No. 26. BYU trails TCU by only one spot after falling to No. 22. SDSU is only two spots ahead of the Lobos after it continues to rise in the rankings reaching No. 36 from last week’s No. 40. To round out the conference UNLV fell eleven spots from No. 52 to No 63.
Individual and doubles rankings were updated for the third time this season on March 21. Maja Kovacek remains UNM’s top ranked singles player this season at No. 34. Kovacek is currently 10-4 in the season as she continues to play at the No. 1 and 2 singles spots for the Lobos. Iva Gersic moved from the No. 116 spot to No. 114 after defeating two of her three opponents this past week. The doubles team of Gersic and Kovacek is still a major threat in the doubles competition. They moved up one spot to 2nd ranked in the nation with a record of 11-0 in their spring season and a record of 22-2 for fall and spring seasons combined this year. 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.
A LOOK AT THE AIR FORCE FALCONS…This season the Falcons are currently 8-11, 1-1 MWC as they continue their conference schedule. Air Force has already met up with Wyoming in a 4-3 win and Colorado State in a 2-5 loss. In non-conference schedule the Falcons are ranked 9th in the MWC.
Air Force’s roster features 1 senior, 2 juniors, 2 sophomores and 3 freshman. They are coached by Kim Gidley who is in her sixth season with the Falcons. Gidley had a record of 98-91 with Air Force as she entered the 2006 season.
Last season New Mexico defeated Air Force 6-1 in a home conference match. The Lobos have faced the Falcons a total of 10 times with a perfect 10-0 record overall.
A LOOK AT THE COLORADO STATE RAMS…Colorado State is 8-5 in their season, 1-0 MWC after defeating Air Force 5-2 last weekend. In non-conference standing the Rams are tied with TCU in the 6th spot. For conference standings they are 1st after three teams have begun their conference schedule.
Their line up features 3 seniors, 1 junior, 1 sophomore and 4 freshman. Colorado State’s head coach is Jon Messick and is in his 15th season with the Rams.
Last season New Mexico defeated the Rams 6-1 in their scheduled conference match. The teams have met a total of 16 times with New Mexico’s record being 16-0 against the Rams.
A LOOK AT THE WYOMING COWGIRLS…Wyoming is currently 7-7 in their season, 0-1 MWC and are on a one game winning streak. In non-conference schedule standings they are 8th in the conference.
Their line up features 1 senior, 3 juniors, 2 sophomores and 1 freshman. The head coach, Kristen Hall, is in her first year with the Cowgirls. She comes from Washington State University where she was an assistant coach.
New Mexico defeated Wyoming last year in a 4-0 match. The Lobos and Cowgirls have met a total of nine times with the Lobos having a perfect 9-0 record.
LAST WEEK: A CALIFORNIA RUN…The New Mexico Lobos traveled to California for matches against No. 35 Fresno State, No. 49 Sacramento State and No. 17 Pepperdine. The Lobos were defeated in two of their three matches but upended Sacramento State in a 6-1 win.
The Lobos began their trip to California against No. 35 Fresno State. New Mexico easily took the doubles point after the 2nd ranked team Maja Kovacek and Iva Gersic defeated Fresno State’s 6th ranked doubles team at the No. 1 spot. Ola Abou-Zekry and Lucy Scott won at the No. 2 spot to earn the doubles point. The Lady Lobos were unable to hold off Fresno State in singles matches however and the UNM eight game winning streak came to an end.
New Mexico traveled to Sacramento and seemed to take out their Fresno State loss on the Hornets. The Lobos defeated Sacramento State 6-1 winning the doubles point as well as five of the six singles matches.
After a two hour weather delay and a near cancellation the Lobos lost to Pepperdine 6-1 in their final match of the week. For only the second time this season the Lobos lost the doubles point. Pepperdine played their No. 34 doubles team at No. 1 where Kovacek and Gersic won 8-4. At the No. 2 spot the 17th ranked Pepperdine duo defeated Scott and Abou-Zekry. The Waves dominated the singles matches and came out with a victory against the New Mexico Lobos.
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.
NCAA HONORS…An announcement from NCAA was released March 13th in recognition of Division I teams and their academic achievement in the classroom. The NCAA honored 1,048 teams based on Academic Progress Rate with The University of New Mexico women’s tennis team among them. Their honorees were meant to include the top 10 percent, but with only two years of APR data there were was 17.1 percent of the 6,112 Division I teams with perfect 1000 APR.
Grouping was split up between specific sports and men’s and women’s teams. Women’s tennis featured the most teams honored with 93. For more information on the Academic Progress Rate go to www.NCAA.org (click the “Academics and Athletes” tab on the home page, then the “Academic Progress Rates” link under “Education and Research”).
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.