Women's Tennis Opens at Baylor, TCU
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — There are probably harder opening weekends in women’s tennis, but any list will have New Mexico’s opening weekend on it. The Lobo women’s tennis team, 10-11 last season, will look for a bounce-back year starting with a tough opening weekend, traveling to open against Baylor on Saturday and then playing at TCU on Sunday.
The Lobos a year ago featured one of the nation’s youngest teams, with six freshmen in the lineup. This year those six are sophomores and once again will be looked upon to win matches throughout the lineup. The lone upperclassman is Ruth Copas, who not only brings three years of UNM tennis to the table, but plenty of international experience as well, playing for Team Ireland in the Dundalk Cup. It’s the growth in collegiate tennis from year one to year two that has the coaching staff excited.
“We had four international freshmen last year in Albie (Hsiang-Wen Huang), Polly (Yue Lin Chen), Tash (Natasha Munday) and Bronte (Murgett), and they played really well, but could be inconsistent,” said third year head coach Stephanie Wooten-Quijada. “I think this year they are more settled into college life and being here, and it showed in the Fall.”
The Lobos saw plenty of success in the Fall, success that should translate into more wins in 2019. Yue Lin Chen went 11-2 to lead the way in the Fall, and she was followed by fellow sophomore Natasha Munday at 8-5. Copas, the lone senior, was also 8-5 as seven of the eight Lobos played over .500 in the Fall, with the only Lobo under .500 being walk-on Maddie Chavez, who as a freshmen went 5-6 in the Fall, playing extremely well in her first action.
Overall, the Lobos went 50-28 in singles in the Fall, a robust .641 winning percentage. The team was even better in doubles competition, going 28-13, a .683 winning percentage. Chen went 11-3 in doubles, giving her an unheard of 22 wins in the Fall combined. Last year for all of 2017-18, Chen had 18 wins, 14 in singles. It’s that type of growth that has the Lobos and their fans excited for 2019.
But then there’s the opening schedule. Baylor. TCU. On the road.
The Bears, who won 7-0 over UNM last year, went 18-14 a year ago in advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Bears are currently one of four teams outside of the ITA/Oracle Top 25 that are receiving votes. The Bears have a pair of nationally-ranked players in Livia Kraus (No. 59) and Kristina Sorokolet (No. 114) in singles. However, the Bears lost their season opener last weekend to Hawai’i 4-3. For TCU, the Horned Frogs are 1-0 after an easy 7-0 sweep of Abilene Christian. TCU went 13-14 a year ago, getting hot late, winning four of its last five before losing in the conference tournament to No. 6 Texas.
NOTES: The Lobos will host three matches in three days next weekend, hosting UTSA, Abilene Christian and Cameron College, with the teams UNM isn’t playing facing off in a neutral match. Those matches are Friday, Saturday and Sunday.