ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The fall schedule has been set, and now the complete 2019-20 schedule is done for The University of New Mexico men’s tennis team. That schedule, announced by head coach Ben Dunbar, opens with the first fall tournament this weekend, in Midland, Texas.
“This fall the goal is to challenge the guys to excel on and off the court,” said Dunbar, who led UNM to a Mountain West title last year. “Following the success of last year’s season we see that when we put the hard work in, we are rewarded. Midland is a great event with a lot of top schools competing and we are excited to see our group of new guys take this event head on to start the season. They have been working hard in individuals and in fitness and I know they will put 100% out there this weekend.”
The squad returns four players from last year’s title team in senior Dominic West and junior Stepan Holis who both tied for the team lead in singles wins a year ago. UNM also has a pair of sophomores in Facundo Bermejo and Nicolas Prieto, who both turned in big performances in big matches a year ago. Those four are joined by three newcomers in Alex Maggs, Raul Dobai and Jake Trondson.
Trondson is a great addition from Minnesota brings All-American experience with him as a transfer from Division III Hamline College. Trondson brings with him a solid resume with wins over Division III’s No. 2 player in the country. His career as a Lobo starts this weekend at Midland where he will compete in the Cherry and Silver for the first time. For UNM, lone senior Dominic West was named captain. An emotional leader for the squad, West is the right guy to lead the Lobos on the court in 2019-20.
UNM opens the season Sept. 13-15 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 is the first ITA National Championship of the year and will include the best schools from all over the country.
Veteran Dominic West has qualified for the main draw, as he is the No. 2 ranked returner in the ITA Mountain Region. He should also represent UNM in the qualifying of doubles with Facundo Bermejo. The newcomers will find themselves in pre-qualifying but with dreams of a run to meet West in the main draw.
The Lobos will then head to Denver, Colorado where the ITA Mountain Regional Championships will be held from October 16-20 at Denver University. Last year UNM’s Ricky Hernandez Tong won that event, UNM’s first individual titlist in 15 years.
As for the spring schedule, it features plenty of tough opponents for the Lobos, the Lobos will face 13 teams ranked in the top 75 of the ITA rankings, a top 15 team in Tennessee and the continuation of many regional rivalries against the likes of Utah, BYU and Texas Tech.
“We are excited to release this nationally relevant schedule,” said Dunbar. “This has been a point with our team, we are trying to play the best regional competition and add in some national travel to create a great schedule for the team. 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. If we can do that we will get plenty of opportunities at top 75 teams and put ourselves in a good position. We start the 20-hour clock on Thursday and we are traveling off the bat, so 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.