April 22, 2009
University of New Mexico senior Ola Abou-Zekry has been named Mountain West Conference Women’s Tennis Player of Year the conference announced tonight. Abou-Zekry is the first Lobo to earn the league’s top award since 2004. She and teammate Mackenzie White earned all-MWC honors in singles play, while Abou-Zekry and her partner Emma Hayman were named to the all-MWC doubles team.
A panel of MWC coaches chooses the award, along with all-MWC teams.
Abou-Zekry ended the regular season with a 24-10 singles record, and won nine of her last 10 matches to lead the Lobos 9-13 to a fifth place finish in the regular season standings.
The Cairo, Egypt product is 23-1 this season when she wins the first set and is 8-1 this spring when the team wins.
Abou-Zekry holds the seventh spot on the UNM career singles wins list with 82 victories. She is also tied with Claudia Gutierrez at No. 12 for the most combined singles and doubles wins in a career with 141.
White is currently tied for 13th place with Gutierrez on the most career singles wins list with 72. The Mobile, Ala. native posted a regular season record of 20-10 and is 16-0 when she wins the first set.
Abou-Zekry and Hayman were 9-6 in doubles play.
At the Fidelity Investments UNM Scholar Athlete Banquet on Tuesday night White was honored as the Lobo Club Female Athlete of the Year Award. Maria Sotirchos earned the Fidelity Scholarship, which awarded the senior with a $1,000 fifth year scholarship.
The Lobos will be back in action tomorrow as the take on No. 4 seed BYU at 2 p.m. at the Jerry Cline Tennis Center. Insert ticket price info here.