The UNM women's tennis team capped a perfect 7-0 home season Sunday at the Lobo Tennis Club with a 7-0 sweep of the Colorado State Rams - but the Lobos were not cheering.
It was their first weekend of Mountain West Conference competition, and the last home match for three Lobo seniors.
UNM lost only one match this weekend but head coach Kathy Kolankiewicz said the Lobos will be losing a lot more.
Sandy Lukowski, Tjasa Suvak and Maria Ruiz-Fabrega said tearful goodbyes to the Lobo Tennis Club and their fans before the start of Sunday's matches.
"It's really emotional for me," Kolankiewicz said. "It really is. This year, having three has sort of multiplied it three times. Last year I only had seven players, so these girls were half of my team almost."
Each of the seniors have played all four years for Kolankiewicz at UNM, and Lukowski agreed with her coach that the team has been through a lot of ups and downs during that time.
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"We've come so far as a team, with the coaches and the girls," Lukowski said "It was good and bad. I'm ready to move on, but at the same time I'm going to miss it a lot."
The Lobos have moved into the No. 32 spot in the nation, UNM's highest ranking ever in women's tennis. Kolankiewicz said the team's goal at the beginning of the season was to finish in the top 30. UNM is now 13-3 overall this season and 2-0 in conference. The only thing that may be holding the Lobos back is their schedule.
Brigham Young is the only other top-25 team UNM will play this year. Kolankiewicz said playing the Cougars this weekend is the Lobos' only chance of beating a team that is ahead of them in the conference.
"So you could actually see us winning and moving down in the rankings," she said. "And I'm prepared for that."
Kolankiewicz said UNM needs a few more opportunities to play more experienced teams, which she hopes to do in the NCAA tournament.
On Sunday, UNM easily won the doubles' point with Lukowski and Maja Kovacek in the No. 1 spot over Emily Kirchem and Charity Malone of Colorado State , Ruiz-Fabrega and freshman Iva Gersic defeating Carla Pallares and Jasmine Singh in the No. 2 spot and juniors Tiffany Robertson and Michelle Heidbrink outlasting Tatyana Ugorich and Alexandra Paganetti at No. 3.
Lukowski said the Rams weren't quite what she and Kovacek were expecting.
"They weren't too good," Lukowski said with a laugh. "But we have a good chemistry. We just went out there and played around. We have a good time out there, we don't think too much about opponents."
But Lukowski said they are looking forward to their next match because it is against No. 17 BYU and Kolankiewicz said this weekend is the biggest match of the year.
