April 24, 2006
THIS WEEK…The No. 52 New Mexico women’s tennis team is headed to San Diego, Calif. for the MWC Championship where they take on No. 32 San Diego State University on April 27 at 2 p.m. in the first round. The Lobos finished out their regular season 13-7, 4-4 MWC and fifth in the conference.
The past ten years New Mexico has never finished below 7th in the ITA Central Region rankings. They have been semifinalists four times, twice in the WAC and twice in the MWC. The Lobos have won the championships twice, once in the WAC and once in the MWC. In the past ten years when the Lobos did not finish as semifinalists or finalists they took 3rd in the MWC.
NATIONAL RANKINGS…New Mexico had a tough week in rankings after finishing its season with three home losses and is currently ranked No. 52.
The Mountain West Conference still has four teams ranked in the top-50 with TCU leading at No. 16. The Horned Frogs rose from their previous ranking of No. 20 from last week’s rankings. UNLV had a good week moving up from No. 52 to No. 45 in the rankings. San Diego State moved up one spot this week from No. 33 to No. 32. Rounding out the teams in the top-50 BYU fell one spot from the No. 27 spot to No. 28.
Individual and doubles rankings were updated once more this season on April 18. Maja Kovacek remains UNM’s top ranked singles player this season. After defeating the No. 12 player in the nation she moved up to No. 30 from her previous No. 39. Kovacek is currently 12-8 in the season as she continues to play at the No. 1 and 2 singles spots for the Lobos. Despite Iva Gersic suffering from a sinus infection and not playing in the singles action last week she rose 11 spots in the rankings from No. 92 to No. 81. The doubles team of Gersic and Kovacek is still a major threat in the doubles competition. They had a tough week after dealing with Gersic’s illness, however they remain among the top-10 ranked doubles teams in the nation at No. 7. The highest ranking ever achieved by a Lobo women’s tennis player came from the Gersic/Kovacek tandem when they reached a No. 2 ranking March 7 and 21. The duo has had a strong season so far with a 12-3 record this spring and 23-5 overall. Last season the highest ranking to ever be achieved by the duo was 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 SAN DIEGO STATE AZTECS…San Diego State University finished out their regular season with a 15-7, 6-2 MWC record. They ended fourth in the conference and are currently ranked No. 32 in the nation.
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 19 times with a record of 6-13. Last weekend SDSU took the match against UNM with a 5-2 victory. Last year in the MWC Championships the Aztecs met up with Utah for a 4-1 victory and then took on BYU in the semifinals for a 4-2 loss.
LAST WEEK: LOBOS HOST TCU, SDSU AND UNLV…The Lobos had a tough week last week after hosting TCU, SDSU and UNLV in home matches at the Lobo Tennis Club. With a key player, Iva Gersic, suffering from a sinus infection the Lobos rallied and made a strong effort but came up short.
TCU proved itself as top in the conference after defeating the Lobos 5-2 winning the doubles point and four of the singles matches. Maja Kovacek had a huge upset against TCU after defeating the No. 12 player in the nation, Nicole Leimbach.
Kovacek got her second win against a ranked player for the weekend after defeating SDSU’s Dita Hauerlandova in two sets, 6-2, 6-3. New Mexico lost the doubles point but came back and won three of the six singles matches.
In the final match of the weekend against UNLV the Lobos won the doubles point for the first time all weekend. Lucy Scott and Ola Abou-Zekry helped keep UNM alive in the doubles after winning all three of their doubles matches of the weekend. Also for the first time all weekend New Mexico fell short in the singles action taking only one singles point.
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.
Sophomore Ola Abou-Zekry |
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 No. 7 ranked duo of Iva Gersic and Maja Kovacek |
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.