ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Five former Lobo men’s tennis players reunited last week to compete in the first annual National Alumni Tennis Championships that took place in Fort Worth, Texas, November 14-16 at Texas Christian University.
Current New Mexico men’s tennis head coach Bart Scott was joined by UNM alumni David Kowalski, Ryan Stotland, Gene Carswell, and Johnny Kowalski to represent the Lobos at the event put on by former Louisiana State player, Tom Hand.
The event featured a total of six schools including UNM, Texas, Georgia, Baylor, Middle Tennessee State, and host TCU. The schools were broken up into two groups. UGA, MTSU, and BU made up the first group and UNM, UT, and TCU created the second.
With victories against UT (4-1) and TCU (4-1), the former Lobo athletes won out in their group and earned a chance to face off against UGA, who won out in the first group. UNM fell to the Bulldogs in the championship, but it was a pretty good run for the Lobo squad who had about four less players than every other school.
“It was a great weekend of tennis, but more importantly, Tom Hand got us all together to compete again, to remember the ‘good old days’ and to reconnect with friends and teammates,” Scott said.
While the event had only six schools participate in its first year, Scott said he expects a much larger turnout next year and in the years to come.
“With the success of the event and excitement it generated, I expect between sixteen to twenty four teams in the event next year,” Scott said. “We can’t wait to go again!”