ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico women’s tennis team opens up it’s 2018 Spring season with high hopes after a strong Fall campaign, and those hopes will be put to the test right away as UNM travels to Waco, Texas to take on No. 19 Baylor in the season opener on Friday night at 6 p.m. Central Time. The Lobos will then stay in Waco and take on Western Michigan in a neutral site match on Saturday night at 6 p.m. Central Time.
The Lobos went 8-14 last year in head coach Stephanie Wooten-Quijada’s first season, but the Lobos ended the year on a 7-3 run, with losses to San José State in the Mountain West Tournament and to No. 7 Texas Tech. Last year Baylor went 22-7 and lost to No. 20 Texas A&M 4-3 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Western Michigan went 10-13 last year.
About the Lobos: UNM hasn’t played a match yet, but the team had an excellent Fall, going 51-33 in singles play with several titles. Still, only two players, Ruth Copas and Diana Wong, remain from last year’s team. Copas was almost unbeatable in the Fall, going 8-1. Those eight wins tied for the team lead with Lauren Rich, who went 8-4.
Rich is one of seven freshmen on the team, and she recorded a team-high tying nine doubles wins in the Fall, as did fellow freshman Natasha Munday, who went 9-5 to Rich’s 9-2. UNM went 24-20 in doubles in the Fall.
About the Bears: The Bears went 22-7 last year, and 8-6 vs. nationally-ranked teams, with the only unranked loss to Tulsa 4-3. The Bears went 31-14 in singles in the Fall, and were led by Theresa Van Zyl, who went 8-3, and Angie Shakhraichuk, who went 6-1. Baylor is similar to UNM in that they have just one upperclassman (UNM has junior Ruth Copas, Baylor has senior Van Zyl). Of the 17 combined members of the two rosters, 15 are freshmen or sophomores. Baylor plays a few hours earlier on Friday, taking on Western Michigan, before playing the Lobos.
About the Broncos: Western Michigan has been busy little Broncos, going 2-2 already on the season, winning over Oakland (5-2) and Butler (7-0) and losing to Indiana (6-1) and Notre Dame (7-0). Only Gabriel Slavova has a winning singles record at 7-6 (2-2 in the Spring at No. 6), but Western Michigan is 11-13 in singles so far in the Spring, splitting at every position but No. 3 singles. In doubles play, the team is 5-6 in the Spring after going just 6-19 in the Fall. Katja Fevralev and Melina Lyubomirova are 2-1 at No. 1 singles to lead the way.
What to Watch: Copas won her first eight Fall matches before a loss to Sasha Pisareva at the Wildcat Invitational 2: The Conjuring (full disclosure, Arizona said there wasn’t an official name for the tournament, so we improvised) and she played well for Ireland in the Fed Cup in the summer of 2017. Diana Wong was a revelation last year winning her final 12 matches of the season, going 16-5. Any one of UNM’s seven freshmen can play in the upper half of the flight, so it’s possible to see two completely different lineups over the first two matches.
Random Factiods: The best doubles team in the Fall was Munday and Rich, who went 4-0. The second best was Bronte Murgett and Rich, who went 3-0 … using just eight players for doubles, Wooten-Quijada used 19 different pairings of doubles in the Fall.
Next for UNM: After the opening weekend in Waco, UNM will come home and play a pair of matches at home, with Western New Mexico on Friday at 10 a.m. and CSU Pueblo on Saturday at 10 a.m. Those matches are slated for the Estes Tennis Complex’s indoor courts.
Following Along:
Live stats of the Baylor match will be located here: http://www.baylorbears.com/sports/m-tennis/live-stats.html
Live video of the Baylor match will be here: http://www.baylorbears.com/sports/m-tennis/live-stats-video.html