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Women's Tennis Opens with Three-Day Trip in Colorado

by Frank Mercogliano

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Returning three seniors, including two for their COVID fifth years, The University of New Mexico women’s tennis team has a big opening three-match trip to Colorado to face three opponents on the road.  UNM will take on Colorado College on Friday at 3:30 pm in Colorado Springs before facing Metro State at 8:30 am on Saturday in Denver, followed by a short ride over to Pueblo for a 2 p.m. match at CSU Pueblo.

The match against Colorado College will take place at Lifetime Fitness in Colorado Springs, while the other two matches will take place at Lifetime Tennis Club in Denver (Metro State) and the Pueblo Tennis Center.

The Lobos will have a full compliment of nine players available for the weekend, a far cry from the end of the Fall individual season when injuries left UNM with just five players.  Veterans Hsiang-Wen “Albie” Huang and Yue Lin “Polly” Chen, who joined the team from Taiwan five years ago, are now using a COVID season for a fifth year, and their experience will lead the way for UNM.  The Lobos also have several other veterans of Mountain West tennis in Myu Kagayama, Satoho Toriumi and Hsuan Huang (no relation to Albie).

Sophomore Allison Romero saw action as a walk-on in 2020-21 and is back, along with true freshman Sarah O’Connor.  Joining the squad in January were a pair of freshmen in Maria Sodre and Sofia Taborga.  All three newcomers will be relied on heavily over the weekend.  Head coach Vicky Maes and assistant Melissa Ates will have options for all three lineups over the weekend.

Colorado College enters the match with an 0-1 record, Metro State 1-2 and CSU Pueblo 0-3.  For both Colorado College and CSU Pueblo, the matches with UNM will be the spring openers, while Metro State will face off with Air Force twice on Saturday.

UNM’s Toriumi and Kagayama both led the way in the Fall season, each recording a team-high nine singles wins as UNM, despite playing shorthanded, went 42-27 in singles, a .609 winning percentage.  Toriumi also led the way with six doubles wins but Hsuan Huang had the best winning percentage at .556 with five wins, playing nine matches with five different partners.

NOTES: Due to other events, there will be no live stats from the three matches in Colorado.  To keep up with the program, follow us on social media on Twitter and Instagram at @UNMLoboWTennis.