ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The fall schedule has been set, and now the complete 2018-19 schedule is done for The University of New Mexico men’s tennis teams. Coach Ben Dunbar announced the 2018-19 schedule, one which opens with the first fall tournament this weekend, in Midland, Texas.
“We are really excited to kick off our fall slate this coming weekend,” said Dunbar. “Our major goal in the fall is to get a lot of high-level match play and experience of competing in the college atmosphere heading into the spring. We are playing a great schedule where we will see some different teams who we haven’t played against before during the fall and that should prepare us for our spring schedule.”
UNM men’s tennis returns five players from last year in seniors Ricky Hernandez-Tong and Michael Tran along with Junior Dominic West. UNM also has a pair of sophomores in Stepan Holis and Tim Buttner, both of whom saw plenty of action as true freshmen last year. Those five are joined by two newcomers in Karlo Divkovic and Nicolas Prieto, who will look to make an impact this fall.
Ricky Hernandez-Tong was named Captain at the start of the year and will lead the Lobos on the court in 2018-19.
UNM opens the season Sept. 14th-16th at the Midland Racquet Club Invitational. The Lobos will then head to Arizona for the Arizona Invitational at the Ventana Canyon facility in Tucson. Both of those tournaments will bring high level competition for a Lobo squad looking to get back to the NCAA Tournament. Both feature strong regional teams that should get UNM ready for the spring season to come.
New Mexico then will compete at the ITA All-American Championships held at the University of Tulsa. This ITA National Championship of the year and will include the best schools from all over the country. Pre-qualifying begins on Saturday Sept. 29, and the Lobos will have three student-athletes in the pre-qualifying phase in Dominic West, Stepan Holis and and freshman Karlo Divkovic. The qualifying draw is set for Oct. 1-2 with the Main Draw running from Oct. 4-8.
Veteran Ricky Hernandez-Tong has qualified for the main draw, as he is the No. 2 ranked returner in the ITA Mountain Region.
The Lobos will then head to Las Vegas, Nevada where the ITA Mountain Regional Championships will be held from October 15-19 at the Darling Tennis Center.
As for the spring schedule, it features plenty of tough opponents for the Lobos, including matches away from home with Texas Tech, Oregon, BYU and Utah, and eight home matches including Pacific, New Mexico State and four conference matches.
“We are excited to release this schedule,” aid Dunbar. “This is the culmination of a lot of hard work for Robin and I. I believe we have the team and the schedule to be very successful this year, however this year our goals are simplified for the guys. We are challenging them to not think too far ahead and focus on getting better one day at a time, to get the most out of every day.”
“We will have plenty of opportunities at teams who are ranked or right there around the top 50 so the guys will be challenged week in week out,” said Dunbar, adding, “We start the 20-hour clock on Thursday and we will get straight to work.”
To support the men’s tennis team this season please follow the link to join the UNM Baseline Club and donate to the UNM Men’s Tennis Team https://www.unmfund.org/fund/mtennis/. If you donate please message Ben Dunbar at bdunbar@unm.edu, so he can track your donation.
Men’s Tennis Schedule Released, Start This Weekend
