Nov. 2, 2007
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — University of New Mexico women’s tennis started the day early with a round of singles at the Florida State Invitational. When the first round of singles was over, the Lobos had won half of their eight matches. Sandra Zmak beat Lina Xu from Jacksonville -3, 6-1 while Emma Hayman won against Xu’s teammate Fernarda Carrero 6-1, 6-0. Victoria Tessmar also defeated a player from Jacksonville, Juliana Umiki 6-3, 6-2 and Mackenzie White beat Central Florida’s Jennifer Carati 6-2, 6-1.
Head coach Kathy Kolankiewicz said “the competition is really strong making for a lot of good matches. Four of the teams in this competition finished in the top 30 last season.”
Ola Abou-Zekry, Lucy Scott, Jennifer Ryba, and Maria Sotirchos all lost their first round matches but will get additional changes to ad to their win columns in the consolation round.
The Lobos did not look as good after their first round of doubles with only one pair collecting a victory but the other three pairs evened the days record. Abou-Zekry and Jennifer Ryba won their first match against Jacksonville’s Soldatova/Jarasova 8-3 and narrowly missed the final of the main round losing in a tie-breaker during the semifinal match. The team of Dorn and Svistun from Kansas won the tie-breaker 9-8 (6) to send the Lobo pair to the consolation draw.
Three doubles teams will be in the finals of the consolation rounds for the Lobos. The pairs of Hayman and Sotirchos, Scott and Zmak, and White and Tessmar all lost their first round match but bounced back with a win and will play for the final.
Play resumes on Saturday with one round each of doubles and singles.