The UNM women's tennis team swept Northern Arizona University 7-0, posting an impressive victory to open the spring season Sunday in the Comcast/First State Bank Invitational at the Lobo Tennis Complex.
The Lobos overpowered the Lumberjacks, losing only one set in getting the six single victories and the one point in doubles play.
Several of the matches were not very competitive as UNM frustrated the Lumberjacks, with most of the Lobos using powerful groundstrokes to keep their opponent shackled. The Lobos were so dominating they only lost one set in nine matches.
"I feel like this was a great first match for us," head coach Kathy Kolankiewicz said. "You always get a little nervous when you haven't competed in a while so we have been doing a lot of practice sets in the last week and I think that is what they needed to prepare for this match."
The Lobos' number-one singles player, Tjasa Suvak, ousted NAU's best player Yvonne de Waal, who is ranked 25th in the region. It is the second time Suvak has defeated de Waal, the other time being in September.
"I think Tjasa played extremely well and beat a good player from our region," Kolankiewicz said. "Just down the line we were pretty impressive."
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Suvak epitomized how most of the Lobos played, staying back and trading groundstrokes until the NAU players made mistakes.
Fellow sophomore Sandy Lukowski displayed why she is considered one of the team's hardest hitters. She showed why her teammates nicknamed her Rocket, slamming the ball from baseline to baseline to run her opponent, Kirsten Balk, into the ground 6-1,6-4 in the number three singles position.
"Basically, all I did during that match was I kept the ball in play," Lukowski said. "When I lost the games was mainly when I made the unforced errors. I just stayed focused and kept the ball in play."
However, the Lobos did not just rely on power. In the number five position, 5-foot, 2-inch sophomore Maria Ruiz-Fabrega showed off a variety of shots to earn a 6-2, 6-4 victory against Ashley Dille.
She attacked the net, used high arching lob shots and groundstrokes to confuse Dille in the first set. The second set was a lot tougher as Ruiz-Fabrega struggled in the early going, trailing three games to zero. But she battled back and came up with the biggest points of the set. Down 3-2 and tied at four points apiece, Ruiz-Fabrega charged the net to slam home a backhand winner and then forced her opponent into a careless mistake to tie the game. With the momentum in hand, she ended the match by winning three of the next four games.
"I started off just trying to work the point, easy and relaxed," she said. "And then towards the second set I started getting a little anxious, but I saw myself down love-3, so I started focusing and I was able to rebound to get the win."
Her teammates also looked impressive in the victory. In the number two singles contest, freshman Tiffany Robertson bounced back from losing the first set 6-7 to NAU's Kathy Kmiec to win the next two sets 6-4 and 6-4. Freshman Regula Comtesse defeated Karen Kmiec 6-1, 6-2 in the four position. In the sixth position, senior Courtney Choate shutout Michelle Mohr 6-0, 6-0.
The Lobos' strong play continued in doubles play as Suvak teamed with junior Rachel Hatley to defeat Karen Kmiec and de Waal 8-2. Comtesse and Ruiz-Fabrega also had an easy time, earning an 8-4 victory against Kathy Kmiec and Dille. Lukowski and freshman Michelle Heidbrink completed the sweep by defeating Balk and Mohr 8-3.
UNM's next match is Jan. 25-27 when it travels to Arizona to play against the University of San Diego, Kansas State University and the University of Arizona.
