by Steven Fernandez
Daily Lobo
There aren't many familiar faces on the 2005 men's tennis team.
That's because nearly half the team is composed of freshman.
Assistant coach Loren Dils said despite having a whole crop of young players, he thinks this team can still be great.
"I'm very excited," he said. "I think it's a great group of kids. Considering we only have one senior - the rest are sophomores and freshman - we're extremely talented."
The lone senior on the team is Albuquerque native Eric Conklin. There are three sophomores, Max Jones, Kamil Pajkowski and Derek Lynch. The rest of the UNM roster is filled by freshmen Chandler Brass, Graeme Kassautzi and Johnny Parkes.
Jones was the first Lobo to be selected as the MWC Freshman of the Year. He led the team with 23 singles wins and comes into this season ranked 97th nationally by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
Jones said he is excited about the ranking, but also hopes to keep improving.
"For me that's really important," he said. "But I didn't have a great summer, and I want to play good and get my ranking higher."
Jones said he looks forward to the team progressing as a whole and is eager for the season to start.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
"I think we have a really good team here, so we should do well," he said. "Maybe the first semester we'll be a little bit inexperienced, but we have a really good future."
Pajkowski, who was Jones' doubles partner last year, also has high expectations for himself and the team.
"I just hope to come out and play every match well," he said. "If somebody beats me when I'm playing well, then I can't do anything about it, but all I can do is give 100 percent and play to the best of my abilities."
Conklin said even though this will be his final season playing with the team, he is looking forward to being on the court for one more year and hopes to help some of the younger players with their tennis knowledge.
"Like everybody said, we're young and inexperienced," he said. "The sophomores this year already look 10 times better than they did last year. So the longer these guys play, the better we'll look."
Dils said the returning players show promise of continued success. As for the freshmen coming into their first season of play, Dils said he is impressed with the potential.
"It's going to be a bit of a transition," he said. "It's going to be kind of a learning year, but because they know how to play tennis and want to play tennis and are great athletes, I think it's going to be good. I think we're going to be a really, really strong team. Really young, but really strong."
