April 11, 2009
Albuquerque, N.M.- Senior day stated off with a bang as the University of New Mexico women’s tennis team defeated Colorado State, 5-2 on Saturday at the Randy Briggs Indoor Tennis Bubble. The Lobos (8-13, 4-4) continue their winning streak over CSU with an all-time record of 19-0.
“We went 3-3 this weekend,” head coach Kathy Kolankiewicz said. “Today was tough, we had played three in a row and they had only played two. We were tired and played on a lot of emotion.”
Ashley Bonner and Anya Villanueva-Forte easily defeated the duo of Tori Arneson and Caitlin Fluogge. Bonner and Villanueva-Forte downed Colorado State winning 8-2.
Maria Sotirchos and Victoria Tessmar captured the doubles point with an 8-3 victory over Greer Satherlie and Kirsten Stople.
Ola Abou-Zekry and Emma Hayman started off the match strong and was leading 7-1 when the duo of Laura Neal and Lauren Strasburger made a run for it and won five games in a row making the score 7-6. Abou-Zekry and Hayman bounced back and won the match, sweeping doubles play, 8-6.
The first senior off the court was Abou-Zekry who dominated Neal in her final regular season match winning, 6-0, 6-1. Between her first and second set Abou-Zekry won nine games in a row. The Cairo, Egypt product has won a total of 83 singles matches in her career.
Hayman notched another win defeating Arneson 6-3, 6-0. Hayman has an overall record of 20-13.
White decided to keep the fans on their toes. After winning the first set 6-0 against Stausburger White started the second set down 3-0. The Mobile, Ala. product made a run for it and brought the score to four all but fell just short at 6-4. With no match decision made yet, White and Strausburger went into a third set. White gave it her all and battled it out to win 6-3. White has won 72 singles matches in her career.
Sotirchos had to postpone her match for almost 30 minutes because of water on the court. However, it didn’t throw her off her game. Sotirchos ended the day with a solid win over Fluegge, 6-3, 6-1.
“I’m so proud of our seniors,” Kolankiewicz said. “They are playing their best tennis and I am glad they won. Our morale and team spirit is high going into conference championships.”
The Lobos will take sometime off before the Mountain West Conference Championships starting on April 22 and going through the 25. The championships will be held at the Jerry Cline Tennis Center.