by Justin Goodrum
Daily Lobo
The women's tennis team wasn't able to send senior Maja Kovacek out with a victory on Senior Day, falling 5-2 to the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
Before the matches took place against No. 53 UNLV, coaches and teammates held a ceremony honoring Kovacek's accomplishments.
UNM head coach Kathy Kolankiewicz gave an emotional speech, holding back tears as she talked about the importance of Kovacek to the program.
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"She's arguably the best player UNM has ever had," Kolankiewicz said.
When it was Kovacek's turn to address the crowd, she thanked the fans, coaches and teammates who supported her during her tenure at UNM. She said she was sad her four years had to come to an end.
"I had trouble sleeping last night," Kovacek said. "I dreaded for this day to come."
During the doubles competition, the pair of Iva Gersic and Kovacek dominated UNLV's Elena Gantcheva and Sharon Marin, winning six straight games to take the match 8-2.
The No. 2-doubles tandem of Nora Quintal and Jennifer Ryba disposed of Cindy Treber and Mery Constanti 8-3 to secure the doubles point for UNM. Lobos Lucy Scott and Ola Abou-Zekry took the No. 3-doubles match 8-6.
The 1-0 advantage didn't last long for the Lobos, though. Kolankiewicz said playing Texas Christian University and San Diego State the two previous days wore down the team.
"It was a tough match for us because it was our third day of playing and only their second," Kolankiewicz said.
With Gersic sitting out the No. 2 singles match because of an illness, the Lobos suffered, Kolankiewicz said.
"Having our No. 2 player Iva sick, and having to pull her out of both yesterday and today's match, it was tough on our team mentally and emotionally," she said. "Everybody had to step up and play a higher position, which made it very difficult."
Freshman Mackenzie White defeated Claire Smith 6-4, 6-4, but that was the only singles match the Lobos would take.
No. 16 Gantcheva defeated Kovacek 6-4, 6-2 in the No. 1 singles spot while Nikol Dimitrova handled Quintal 6-4, 6-3 in the No. 2 spot. Marin defeated Scott 6-1, 6-0, while Treber came back to beat Abou-Zekry 0-6, 6-1, 6-4. In the final match, Linda Tempelfelde defeated Ryba 6-1, 6-2.
With the loss, UNM falls to 13-7 overall and 4-4 in the Mountain West Conference. UNLV improved to 13-6 and 6-2.
Despite the loss to UNLV, White said the Lobos need to rebound and prepare for the MWC tournament in two weeks.
"We had a rough couple of days, and it happens to the best of teams, and we're going to be ready to bounce back for conference," White said.
Although Kovacek lost her final home singles match, she still holds the school record for the most combined singles and doubles wins, was named UNM's 2005 female athlete of the year and has two NCAA tournament appearances.
White said Kovacek's presence has meant a lot to the team's morale, and she will be hard to replace.
"It was really sad," White said. "She was a great leader, a great player. We're all going to miss her."
