Senior John Kowalski has made a habit of trailblazing the tennis circuit for his younger brother David. Where John opens the door, David follows soon after.
John, who went to Carlsbad High School, won a New Mexico state high school AAAA tennis singles championship in 1997. David followed with three-straight titles from 1999-2001. John chose to play tennis at UNM and, three years later, David also became a Lobo.
As a freshman, John played on a UNM squad that reached the NCAA Championships. This season, John says he hopes to reach the tournament again with his brother on the team.
"That's been my goal," John said. "I always wanted to get back (to the NCAA Championships). I know we have the team to do it."
Kowalski has been playing his best tennis lately. In a March 31 match against the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, Kowalski beat Leslie Eisinga 4-6, 6-0, 7-6. The final set went to a tiebreaker that Kowalski won 7-4, giving the Lobos a 4-3 win over the 58th-ranked Rebels.
The win started a 3-1 spurt for the Lobos, including wins in two of their three matches this weekend. Kowalski, in the number five position, beat the University of Utah's Tyler Poulson 6-3, 6-4 as part of a 4-3 win over the Utes Friday. On Saturday, He played in one of three three-set performances against Brigham Young University. He wound up on the losing end of a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 match against Jeff Olsen.
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Kowalski rebounded Sunday with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 win over the Air Force Academy's Justin Mancinelli in the number four singles position. UNM won the match 6-0.
The win puts Kowalski's record at 22-11 this season, which is the third-most victories on the team.
Head coach Alan Dils said it was great to see Kowalski win his final home match.
"His parents came down to watch him play," Dils said. "It was good to see. He had a little mental lapse in the first set, but he won 12 of the next 13 games. It just took him mentally refocusing, in which he did a good job."
The road to success has been filled with potholes for Kowalski. As a sophomore, he broke his wrist several matches into the season, ending his year and forcing him to lose a year of eligibility. Worse, he couldn't play for six months because of the injury. Kowalski said it took about a year to regain his strength and conditioning, but he did finish with a 20-10 record his junior season.
Psychologically, it took him longer to overcome the injury and get back to the level of tennis he played prior to the injury.
"At first, I thought, 'This isn't fair,'" Kowalski said. "It took a while. I probably barely got over it more than a semester ago. I can't just blame it on that. It's not easy to deal with. You lost a lot of time, and you have to start over again."
Despite the time he lost to injury, Kowalski's game has improved. He is still quick on the court, but he has improved his strength and has expanded his game to take advantage of his skills.
"I'm more aggressive," he said. "I use my serve to get myself into good positions. I can approach the net and play aggressive. In juniors, I stayed back a lot and waited for the other guy to miss."
Kowalski has picked up where he left off his junior year, going 9-4 in fall competition and 13-7 in dual matches this spring. Often times, he finds himself next to David in the lineup. They have played the number four or five positions most of the time during the past two weeks, although David did not play against Air Force.
John said it took him a while to get used to watching David play on the same team.
"At first, it was strange watching him playing for UNM with a UNM shirt," John said. "Now, it looks normal again."
Dils said John has helped David adapt to the college scene.
"It's nice that Johnny's here because he provides the leadership for David and shows him the ropes and stuff," Dils said. "David's not nearly as green as many of the freshmen coming in here about the whole college life. He has been thoroughly involved in it for the last three or four years."
