Albuquerque, N.M. — Throughout the first year as Executive Producer of LoboTV, Kasey Byers, along with his assistant Nathaniel Wilson, has brought several new innovations for Lobo fans. From the Day in the Life videos, to fantastic highlight packages, to new longer features under the umbrella of LoboFilms, it’s been a year of firsts.
The Mountain West Network, powered by Campus Insiders, will broadcast every match of the 2015 Mountain West Tennis Championships. That production is coming in part thanks to a grant from the United States Tennis Association, and with it, the broadcast might be the biggest undertaking yet. Via the MWN, the 2015 tournament marks the first time that the tennis championship tournament will be streamed in the league’s history.
The Mountain West, along with the American, the Big 12 and the SEC all received grants and delivery-related assistance from the UTSA in order to bring the conference championship matches to a variety of digital platforms. However, only the Mountain West will deliver every single match of its conference tournament digitally. It is believed that this is the first time a Division I conference will broadcast every match of both its men’s and women’s tennis championships.
“We’re so glad to be working with each of these four conferences,” said Virgil Christian, the USTA’s Director of Collegiate Tennis. “They have all shown a commitment to the continued effort to increase the relevance of tennis in collegiate athletics, and playing the no-ad format has proven to be drama-filled for both student-athletes and fans. The USTA is proud to help these institutions and programs be seen on a national platform.”
“This is a tremendous feather in our cap, and for the conference,” said Chief Operations Officer Tim Cass of UNM Athletics, who worked with UNM’s coaching staff to ensure the grant from the UTSA. “To bring the entire championships to fans not just here in Albuquerque, but to other Mountain West cities and globally will showcase not just a wonderful facility in the McKinnon Family Tennis Stadium, but the competitiveness of the Mountain West. This makes the Mountain West Championships one of the premier tournaments in the country on the collegiate level.”
Robert Portnoy (Wednesday and Thursday) and Chris Byers (Friday-Sunday) will bring the play-by-play action with Scott Treibly. Treibly, a former UNM tennis player and assistant coach at Texas A&M is a longtime head coach and College Placement Directory at the IMG Academy. He has also done color analysis on tennis for ESPN3.
The broadcasts will feature four cameras, with one camera able to capture two courts each. A fourth camera will be able to focus on any match, plus give different angles and views of the tournament. The McKinnon Family Tennis Stadium is set up with all six courts adjacent to each other, with digital scoreboards on each court, and a large central scoreboard showing the scores on all six courts in the center.
Much of the logistics of camera placement and position was done by Byers and Wilson, with the thoughts of being able to broadcast the tournament matches much the same way national tournaments are broadcast, with the ability to “whip-around” to the court with the most action or impact.
“Setting up the tournament for broadcast has been an exciting project, and I feel that the tennis fans in the Mountain West will enjoy being able to see parts of all the matches,” said Byers. “We will showcase the start of all of the singles matches to tell the story lines, and then move to where the action and scores dictate.”
The opening day of the tournament will be on Wednesday, April 22 with No. 8 Air Force takes on No. 9 Colorado State at 9 a.m. That match will mark the first of three broadcasts that day, and the first of 17 over the next five days, culminating on Sunday, April 26 with the men’s championship at 11 a.m. and the women’s at 2 p.m.
2015 Mountain West Women’s Tennis Championship Pairings
| Wednesday, April 22 | ||
| 9 a.m. MT | Women’s First Round Match #1 | No. 8 Air Force vs. No. 9 Colorado State |
| 12 p.m. MT | Women’s First Round Match #2 | No. 6 Utah State vs. No. 11 UNLV |
| 3 p.m. MT | Women’s First Round Match #3 | No. 7 Nevada vs. No. 10 Boise State |
| Thursday, April 23 | ||
| 9 a.m. MT | Men’s Quarterfinal Match #1 | No. 2 Utah State vs. No. 7 Nevada |
| 12 p.m. MT | Men’s Quarterfinal Match #2 | No. 3 San Diego State vs. No. 6 UNLV |
| 3 p.m. MT | Men’s Quarterfinal Match #3 | No. 4 Fresno State vs. No. 5 Boise State |
| 6 p.m. MT | Men’s Quarterfinal Match #4 | No. 1 New Mexico vs. No. 8 Air Force |
| Friday, April 24 | ||
| 9 a.m. MT | Women’s Quarterfinal Match #1 | No. 4 San Diego State vs. No. 5 Wyoming |
| 12 p.m. MT | Women’s Quarterfinal Match #2 | No. 1 Fresno State vs. AFA/CSU winner |
| 3 p.m. MT | Women’s Quarterfinal Match #3 |
No. 3 San José State vs. USU/UNLV winner |
| 6 p.m. MT | Women’s Quarterfinal Match #4 | No. 2 New Mexico vs. UNR/BSU winner |
| Saturday, April 25 | ||
| 9 a.m. MT | Men’s Semifinal Match #1 | USU/UNR winner vs. SDSU/UNLV winner |
| 12 p.m. MT | Men’s Semifinal Match #2 | FS/BSU winner vs. UNM/AFA winner |
| 3 p.m. MT | Women’s Semifinal Match #1 | QF Match #1 winner vs. QF Match #2 winner |
| 6 p.m. MT | Women’s Semifinal Match #2 | QF Match #3 winner vs. QF Match #4 winner |
| Saturday, April 25 | ||
| 11 a.m. MT | Men’s Championship Match | |
| 2 p.m. MT | Women’s Championship Match |
2 p.m. MT Women’s Championship Match