Azkara Named Mountain West Player of the Year
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. –– Arda Azkara, who went a perfect 6-0 in Mountain West Play at No. 1 singles, was named the Mountain West Player of the Year, the second time that the Lobos have garnered a Player of the Year award in the last three seasons. His coach Chris Russell, who led UNM to an unbeaten conference season, a 15-5 overall mark and a national ranking was named Mountain West Coach of the Year.
Overall, Azkara is the fourth Mountain West Player of the Year from the Lobos, joining Divan Coetzee (2004), Johnny Parkes (2009) and Raul Dobai (2021). Additionally, both Tad Berkowitz (1995) and Matt Amgwerd (1999) won Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year awards. Azkara was named the Mountain West Freshman of the Season last year.
Along with Azkara, Aram Noroozian was named All-Mountain West in singles, and Azkara and his doubles partner Alex Maggs were named All-Mountain West in doubles. Coach of the Year is decided upon after the Mountain West Tournament.
Azkara overall for the season was 16-8, and 14-5 in the Spring season, all at No. 1 singles. He ended the year on a six-match winning streak, and he finished the season 9-0 at home at No. 1 singles, running his career home record at home at No. 1 singles to 19-0.
He additionally finished the season on an 11-2 stretch over his last 14 matches, leading 5-3 in the third set in his lone unfinished match.
Noroozian was just as hot as Azkara over the conference season, going 5-0 and leading 4-1 in the third set of his lone unfinished match. He finished the year on a 15-2 run over 18 matches, and his 21-10n overall mark put him second on the team in wins. He went 1-1 at No. 2 singles, 9-2 at No. 3 singles and 5-1 at No. 4 singles.
In doubles, Azkara and Maggs went a perfect 5-0 in Mountain West play. The finished the year with six consecutive wins overall and they went 7-3 overall.
It marked the second straight year that Azkara earned All-Mountain West honors for both singles and doubles, and this year marked the first the first such honors for Noroozian and Maggs.
New Mexico, which earned the No. 1 seed in the Mountain West Tournament, will face off with either UNLV or Utah State on Thursday at 5 p.m. Pacific, 6 p.m. Mountain in the semifinals in Las Vegas. Fans can follow the match via golobos.com/watchmtennis and golobos.com/mtennisstats.