May 31, 2007
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Expectations heading into the 2006-07 season were extremely high for the New Mexico men’s tennis team. The Lobos were returning five of their six starters from the previous year, including two-time All-Mountain West Conference selection Max Jones and MWC Freshman and ITA Region VII Freshman of the Year Johnny Parkes.
The athletes worked hard in the fall, producing positive results. Four Lobos competed in the USTA Futures event in Costa Mesa, Calif. Sept. 18-20 to start the season. No. 90 junior Max Jones made it the farthest, climbing his way out of the qualifying draw and into the main draw. In the main draw, he matched up with former UCLA All-American Alberto Francis and lost 7-5, 6-4.
Kassautzki vied for the singles crown in the Balloon Fiesta Classic Oct. 6-8 at the UNM Tennis Complex. He fell in the finals after winning three consecutive matches to start the tournament. Kassautzki also teamed with freshman Joe Nicolazzi in doubles, making the semifinals of the doubles draw. The tandem fell 9-8 to a pair from New Mexico State.
Then it was off to the Wilson ITA Mountain Region Championships Oct. 18-22 in Las Vegas, Nev. Jones and Pajkowski were the number one seed in the tournament and proved they deserved it, storming through the doubles draw to take home the title. In singles action, Jones fared well, advancing to the semifinals before falling in three sets.
With their win at Regionals, Jones and Pajkowski, then ranked No. 50 in the nation, earned their first appearance at the ITA Intercollegiate National Indoor Tournament Nov. 2-3. They fell in their opening match to a duo from Brown then lost to a pair from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in a consolation match.
The fall season concluded with sophomore Miles Bugby, Kassautzki and Parkes at the Oregon Classic Nov. 10-12. Parkes and Bugby teamed to win the doubles title while Kassautzki advanced to the finals of the Green Singles Draw before falling.
Graeme Kassautzki led UNM in singles wins in 2007, posting 30. |
New Mexico prepared for the regular season at the Purdue Boilermaker Invitational held at the Schwartz Tennis Center in West Lafayette, Ind. Jan, 13-15. The tournament was not scored as a team event but was played like one. If it had been scored like a dual match, the Lobos would have blanked Kentucky, 7-0, and edged out Western Michigan, 4-3. Technically, they would have lost to Purdue, 4-3, but head coach Alan Dils was giving playing time to all his athletes that weekend, sitting his normal starters for many of the matches, which would have made the difference.
With plenty of practice under their belts, the Lobos were finally into regular season action. In an exciting season, which saw them finish 14-9 overall and 3-3 in the MWC, they were perfect at the UNM Tennis Complex, going 8-0.
The Lobos opened the home schedule with back-to-back wins Feb. 2 and 4, ranked 73rd in the nation. They kicked off the weekend with a 5-2 upset over then-63rd-ranked Nebraska and concluded with a bigger win, knocking off 61st-ranked Arizona, 6-1.
After almost a month off, the Lobos were back on the court at home for three games March 2-4. UNM opened with its’ seventh straight win against I-25 rival New Mexico State, handing the Aggies a 6-1 loss. The team followed with a shutout against Nevada and a 4-3 win over up-and-coming Sacramento State.
Their third and final home stand of the season saw Radford, then-18th-ranked Minnesota and Northern Arizona in town March 15-18. The Lobos opened with a 5-2 win Thursday afternoon over Radford. Less than 24 hours later, the team was back on the court, itching for an upset over the Gophers. A doubles sweep and four singles wins delivered a 5-2 UNM win, leaving them one shy off a perfect season at home. Head coach Alan Dils sat Johnny Parkes, his No. 2 singles player, and still earned the win over the Lumberjacks, 6-1.
With an 11-3 record and a major upset against the Gophers, the Lobo men’s tennis team put the New Mexico name further in the national spotlight. At the end of March, the Lobos ranked their highest, jumping 21 spots to No. 40, which was their highest ranking in this decade.
They also boosted their image among the nations’ elite with a terrific showing at then-13th-ranked Texas. But UNM came up a point shy of an upset against the Longhorns, starting a 3-5 streak in its final eight games of the season, which were all on the road.
Overall, the Lobos played 13 matches against 10 different teams ranked in the top-75, including five teams in the top-50. UNM finished the season ranked No. 53 in the nation.
Max Jones (left), Kamil Pajkowski (center) and Johnny Parkes (right) were named to the All-MWC teams. |
At the MWC Championship Banquet, Jones earned his third straight nod to the All-Mountain West Conference singles team and his second consecutive bid to the doubles team. Pajkowski, Jones’ doubles partner, made the doubles team for the second straight year while Parkes placed on the singles team for the second time.
Jones, playing at No. 1 singles for New Mexico almost all season, is 6-14 in dual matches and 16-16 overall. Parkes, who led the team in dual matches with a 16-7 record including a 10-5 mark at No. 2, is 24-13 overall this year. In doubles, Jones and Pajkowski teamed at No. 1, going 9-5. The tandem is 18-9 overall.
Kassautzki, who posted a 30-11 singles record to lead the team in wins this season, jumped into the top-50 all-time at UNM, placing No. 32 with a 50-26 record. With 50 wins in just two years, he is on pace to set a new record, passing Divan Coetzee and Pepe Caballero, who both won 96.
Kassautzki’s 30 wins this season also tied the UNM program record for the sixth most in a single season.
Anticipation is building for next season. The Lobos return every player from the 2006-07 team. Dils is prepared to lead the men in the quest to make UNM a household name in tennis, setting up their hardest schedule to date. With rankings as of final as of May 25, the Lobos are scheduled to host six top-75 teams next year in 24th-ranked Boise State, No. 27 South Alabama, No. 30 Old Dominion, No. 41 Texas A&M Corpus Christi, No. 46 San Diego State and No. 66 Denver. They are also slated to play 33rd-ranked Texas Tech, No. 37 Vanderbilt, No. 49 Middle Tennessee, No. 54 Western Michigan, No. 56 Nebraska, No. 62 BYU, No. 65 UNLV and No. 68 TCU on the road. The Lobos will also compete in the H.E.B. Team Collegiate tournament and could face numerous ranked teams there.