Lobos Open Up Dual Season in Colorado Springs

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It’s a little bit of unchartered territory for the Lobo Women’s Tennis Team.  Not Colorado Springs, a city they will visit twice, oddly never playing conference foe Air Force there, but rather, for a team with three key new faces.  Where thoise three transfers fit into the lineup in Leonie Hoppe (UConn), Katherine Jhang (Idaho) and Maud Vandeputte (Christian Brothers) could go a long way to seeing where the Lobos move in the Mountain West.

UNM returns five from last years’ 11-11 squad, highlighted by Satoho Toriumi and Hsuan Huang, who went 17-7 and 17-10 in singles respectively to tie for the second-most wins on the team.  They form a solid base for the 2022-23 squad that will face a long road over the course of the season.  Toriumi held down the No. 6 slot most of the season and Huang bounced around the lineup, finding a solid home at No. 3 singles.  UNM’s other returner from last year’s lineup is Sarah O’Connor, who mostly played at No. 2 singles for the Lobos.

That gives UNM a lot of flexibility, as Hoppe and Jhang played in the top two slots last year at their schools, as did Vandeputte.  Having potentially five experienced players that played either No. 1 or No. 2 last year should bode well for UNM.

But UNM isn’t six deep … it’s eight deep as sophomores Maria Sodre and Sofia Taborga are both back.  Both played sparingly in the 2022 spring season after coming to UNM at the semester break, but Taborga went 9-5 in singles in the Fall, and Sodre was 7-7, giving fifth-year head coach Vicky Maes plenty of options.

Maes can move folks around during a 10-match non-conference season that will see the Lobos play at home just once, on February 10 against Montana State.  Overall, 16 of UNM’s 19 matches will be played away from home, with only a home weekend in conference play (March 31 hosting Air Force and April 2 hosting Fresno State).  UNM will have seven of the 16 matches away from home be neutral court matches, lessening that sting.

CSU Pueblo and Colorado College are Division II schools, and UNM swept both on its opening trip last year.  The ThunderWolves are 0-3 on the season, losing all three of those matches in the Fall season, and Friday’s neutral opener at Gardne of the Gods Resort is their Spring lid-lifter.  Colorado College is also 0-3, also losing those in an abbreviated Fall schedule and the Saturday match at the same venue will be the Tigers’ Spring opener.