Jan. 16, 2009
Up Next For The Lobos…
The University of New Mexico women’s tennis team starts its 2009 spring season on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Monday, Jan. 19 against No. 26 LSU. Action begins at 10 a.m. at the UNM Tennis Complex in the Randy Briggs Tennis Bubble. The Lobos will start the day with three doubles matchers followed by six single competitions.
Scouting The 2009 Lobos…
The Lobos return seven-experienced players from last year’s 15-9 team, 6-2 in Mountain West Conference. The women’s tennis team (No. 51) tied for second with UNLV (No. 38) in conference play.
Head coach Kathy Kolankiewicz begins her 24th season with a complied record of 346-222. Kolankiewicz announced that she will retire at the end of this season. Associate head coach Roy Cañada will be taking over the position of head coach, following Kolankiewicz’s retirement.
A Look At The Past…
The lobos fell to the No. 35 LSU Tigers 6-1 last year in Baton Rouge. The only win came from sophomore Sandra Zmak at the No. 3 spot. Emma Hayman almost came up with a win as well but fell in a tiebreaker, 10-8.
The Lobos have an all time record of 1-3 against the Tigers.
Who Are The Tigers?
LSU returns eight letterwinners from last year’s 15-10 team, which advanced to the second round in the NCAA Tournament and ended the season ranked No. 27 in country. Senior Megan Falcon is the Tigers’ top player, currently sitting fifth on the ITA singles rankings after earning First Team All-SEC honors with a 13-4 record in 2008.LSU is coached by Tony Minnis, who has assembled a 239-182 record over the past 17 years.
What The Lobos Did In The Fall…
The University of New Mexico women’s tennis team had a busy fall season. The Lobos had three home invitationals between Sept 19 and Oct. 19 and a trip to Salt Lake City, Utah for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional Tournament The Lobos started off fall play with the UNM Fall Invitational. Teams participating in the invite included Denver, Texas Tech, Kansas, Northern Arizona and Abilene Christian University. The invite concluded with a four hour match between UNM’s Ola Abou-Zekry and Denver’s Annette Aksdale. The back-and-forth epic ended with a win for Aksdale 7-6, 6-7, 7-5.
Next the women’s tennis team traveled to Boise, Idaho for the Boise State Invitational. The invite provided the girls with some tough competition. The Lobos came away with some gritty wins and provided the young team with experience to take into spring play.
At the end of October seniors Ola Abou-Zekry, Maria Sotirchos and Mackenzie White went to Salt Lake City to compete at the ITA Regional Tournament. Abou-Zekry advanced to the quarterfinals winning a tough match against conference rival BYU’s Jones McCall 6-3, 6-2.
National Rankings…
The University of New Mexico start of the spring season ranked No. 49 according to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association poll released Jan. 6. Other Mountain West Conference schools making the list are TCU at No. 25, UNLV at No. 39, BYU at 47 and Utah at No. 50.
National Spotlight…
Doubles team senior Mackenzie White and sophomore Emma Hayman begin the season tied at the No. 54 spot. Neither White nor Hayman have ever been ranked before. The duo compiled a fall record of 4-2.
Did You Know…
Six of the ten players on the roster are international. Two of the players are native New Mexicans. This past summer all of courts (indoor and out) were resurfaced along with the indoor courts all receiving new hardware. The Lobos have had a winning record for the past 12 years. The Lobos earned a 3.65 GPA for the 2007-2008 school year. Seniors Ola Abou-Zekry, Maria Sotirchos and Mackenzie White all received above a 4.0 for the 2008 fall semester.
Coaches Corner
Head Coach Kathy Kolankiewicz on the first match”We are very excited to be starting our spring season. We have a great team and have been practicing very hard. We are excited to start at home and ready to play, ready to compete with someone other than each other. We are looking forward to the challenge.”