UNM women’s tennis has not put together the win-loss record it probably wanted at this point in the season, but seems to be eager to change that this weekend in California.
New Mexico (1-7) has been close in several of the matches so far and first-year Lobo head coach Stephanie Wooten-Quijada said the team is on the right track in terms of competing.
“Today has been a great practice for us,” she said. “Our win-loss record isn’t what we had hoped for, but we are in good spirits…hopefully we’ll get it turned around shortly.”
The team has been unable to win the all-important doubles point in any of its matches. The lone point goes to the team that wins two of the three doubles matches. Failing to get it has forced the Lobos to play from behind in every match so far.
Wooten-Quijada said the players practiced several point situations, which she hopes will start to pay off on Saturday against Cal State Northridge at 3 p.m.
The Matadors started the season with a 2-5 record but have recently doubled their win total. CSUN took a 4-3 victory over Cal Poly on Feb. 26 and followed it up with another win over Cal State LA by a score of 5-0 on Mar. 3.
The Lobos will also square off against UC Santa Barbara (4-6) on Sunday at 11 a.m. The Gauchos are on a two-match losing streak, dropping a pair of road contests to Oregon and Washington on Feb. 24-25.
Both matches appear to be winnable for the Lobos and getting those victories would be a good way to close out a 10-game road stand before returning to the comforts of home.
Diana Wong, a freshman, said the women on the team are excited to play their first home match of the season next weekend, but are focused on banding together to take care of business on the road first.
Wong said coming to play at New Mexico has really exceeded her expectations as she was looking for something that was more like a family than a team, and felt she really found that.
“They’re a great group of girls; I love them all,” Wong said. “They are great role models, all of them. They have helped me and Cassie (Chung) do a lot.”
Wong said she has enjoyed playing on a team more than playing as an individual in juniors. It pushes her a lot more, she said.
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The women appear to compete hard for each other and one of the team mantras embodies the idea of “playing for something bigger than one’s self.”
She said the coaches have implemented a good game plan, consistently have the team ready to compete and put the players in good position.
But Wong said it will be up to the players to execute and take care of the things they can control. Individually, she said she would like to be more patient and pick her spots and if the team can be consistent and remain positive, good things will happen.
Robert Maler is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers football and men’s and women’s tennis. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @robert_maler.
