Women's Tennis Heads to Northwest for Three

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Fresh off a two-match home sweep of Western New Mexico and Colorado College by identical 7-0 scores, UNM’s women’s tennis team hits the road for a three-match trip to the Evergreen State, taking on Seattle, Gonzaga and Eastern Washington, all at Gonzaga in Spokane.

The Lobos will open with the Seattle Redhawks of the Western Athletic Conference on Friday at 1 p.m. Mountain Time.  The Redhawks are 2-2 on the season after going just 4-11 a year ago.  Seattle is coming off a tense 4-3 win over St. Mary’s.  It has also defeated North Dakota and lost to both Montana State and Portland.

Saturday’s match is with host Gonzaga.  The Zags are likewise 2-2 on the season, opening with wins over Georgetown and Montana and losing to Cal Poly and Washington in their two most recent matches.  Gonzaga was 13-11 last year and 9-2 at home.  The match will also start at 1 pm Mountain Time.

Sunday will see UNM take on Eastern Washington of the Big Sky at 9:30 am Mountain Time.  A year after recording a 4-12 record, Eastern Washington has struggled out of the gate to an 0-4 start, winning just one point in the four matches, losing 6-1 in its most recent outing, to St. Mary’s.

The Lobos last weekend had no issues in winning its opening two matches, and UNM was able to move a few players into different slots in the lineup.  What held true with Sarah O’Connor, Hsuan Huang and Maud Vandeputte all sweeping their way to wins at the top of the lineup.  UNM did all of that last week without Katherine Jhang, who should figure into the lineup somewhere this weekend if fully back.  If not, UNM got singles wins from Leonie Hoppe, Bente Vandeputte, Sofia Taborga, and Maria Sodre.