April 11, 2006
THIS WEEK…The 48th ranked University of New Mexico women’s tennis team will have their final home matches this weekend against No. 20 TCU on April 13 at 3 p.m., No. 33 San Diego State on April 14 at 2 p.m. and No. 53 UNLV on April 15 at 1 p.m. played at the Lobo Tennis Club. Senior day, honoring the only graduating senior No. 39 Maja Kovacek, will be Saturday. The Lobos have not lost a match at home all season after playing UTEP and Texas Tech February 10 and 12.
NATIONAL RANKINGS…New Mexico had a tough week in rankings, but is still in the top-50 after dropping to No. 48.
The Mountain West Conference, for the first time this season has only five teams ranked in the top-50. UNLV fell to No. 52 this week, from it’s previous No. 48. TCU remains the MWC leader at rising in rankings from No. 25 to No. 20. San Diego State also moved up, going from No. 34 to No. 33. Rounding out the teams in the top-50 BYU went from No. 26 to No. 27 this week.
Individual and doubles rankings were updated for the fourth time this season on April 4. Maja Kovacek remains UNM’s top ranked singles player this season at No. 39. Kovacek is currently 10-6 in the season as she continues to play at the No. 1 and 2 singles spots for the Lobos. Iva Gersic had a big jump to the No. 92 from her previous spot at No. 114. The doubles team of Gersic and Kovacek is still a major threat in the doubles competition. They remain among the top ranked doubles teams in the nation at the No. 3 spot The duo has had a strong season so far with an 11-1 record this spring and 22-3 overall. 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 TCU HORNED FROGS…Currently the Horned Frogs are 14-6 in their season. TCU is first in the conference going into this weekend’s matches with a 5-0 MWC record. They are on a three game winning streak after defeating Washington and conference opponents No. 27 BYU and Utah this past weekend.
Their lineup features 2 seniors including No. 33 Helena Besovic, 3 juniors including No. 119 Ana Cetnik, 6 sophomores including No. 12 Nicole Leimbach, and 2 freshman including No. 83 Anna Sydorska. The team also features three ranked doubles teams in No. 13. Besovic and Sydorska, No. 26 Besovic and Cetnik and No. 59 Cetnik and Karine Ionesca. TCU is coached by Dave Borelli who is in his fourth season with the Horned Frogs. Borelli has an overall record in his first three seasons of 49-23.
New Mexico and TCU have met four times previously with New Mexico having a record of 0-4 against the Frogs.
A LOOK AT THE SAN DIEGO STATE AZTECS…San Diego State University is currently tied for second in the Mountain West Conference. They have a record of 14-6 this season with a MWC record of 5-1. The team is on a three game winning streak after sweeping last weekend against Colorado State, Wyoming and Air Force.
The Aztec lineup features 1 senior No. 84 Dita Hauerlandova, 2 juniors, 2 sophomores, and 3 freshman. They are coached by Peter Mattera who is in his 13th season with SDSU. Mattera has a current record of 187-115.
The Lobos have met SDSU for a total of 18 times with a record of 6-12. Last year New Mexico played the Aztecs coming out with a win, 5-2.
A LOOK AT THE UNLV REBELS…The Rebels are currently tied with SDSU for second place in the MWC. UNLV is 12-5 in their season with a MWC record of 5-1. They are currently on a four game winning streak coming into Lobo Tennis Club after defeating conference opponents Utah, SDSU, Air Force and Wyoming.
The UNLV lineup features 1 senior, 3 juniors, 2 sophomores including No. 16 Elena Gantcheva, and 1 freshman. They are coached by Kevin Cory who is in his seventh year with the Rebels. Cory has a career record of 92-47.
The Lobos have a record of 5-7 after competing a total of 12 times against the Rebels. Last year New Mexico had a close win, defeating UNLV 4-3.
LAST WEEK: THE LOBOS TRAVEL TO UTAHThe Lobos split their weekend matches in Utah after defeating Utah (6-1) and losing a close, tough match to No. 27 BYU (3-4) in Provo, Utah at the BYU Tennis Facilities.
UNM had a strong match against Utah winning all but two of their matches the entire day. The Lobos earned the doubles point winning at the No. 1 and 2 spots. In singles action they won five of their six matches. Four of the five matches won were finished in two sets holding their opponents to no more than 4 points a set.
The Lobos had a harder time going into their match against BYU. They dropped the doubles point, however made a strong comeback in the singles action. UNM won three singles points and had to bring two other matches to a third set tie breaker before dropping the match.
MWC PLAYER OF THE WEEK…Players from the New Mexico women’s tennis team have earned a total of three Mountain West Conference Player of the Week honors 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.
Gersic won her second award this season on March 23 after going undefeated in her four matches against No. 17 Pepperdine and No. 49 Sacramento State. Gersic defeated the No. 93 Sylvia Kosakowski earning New Mexico’s only match point against Pepperdine. She also led at the No. 1 singles spot to help UNM defeat Sacramento State. In doubles action the 3rd ranked duo of Gersic and Kovacek defeated Pepperdine’s No. 6 ranked tandem.
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 ten 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 two freshman (Mackenzie White and Maria Sotirchos). 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.