by David J. Chavez
Daily Lobo
The 48th-ranked UNM women's tennis team lost at home for the first time this season against No. 20 Texas Christian University on Thursday.
The Lobos managed only two wins to fall 5-2 to the Horned Frogs in the first match of a three-day series against Mountain West Conference competition.
The doubles matches started off well for the Lobos with Lucy Scott and Ola Abou-Zekry beating TCU's Anna Sydorska and Andrea Morgado 8-4. UNM did not continue its winning ways with Nora Quintal and Jennifer Ryba losing to TCU's Kewa Nichols and Nicole Leimbach, 8-4.
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UNM's Iva Gersic and Maja Kovacek were dominant last year in doubles, but this year they've been paired up with different teammates throughout the season. They reunited in yesterday's match for the first time in several games for an 8-3 loss against Helena Besovic and Ana Cetnik.
Gersic said her separation from Kovacek has been a struggle at times, because of their close bond.
"Me and Maja have played together for a long time, and it has been hard to get in a good rhythm with my other teammates in doubles," she said. "I enjoy playing with my other teammates, but I don't think it's a good idea to separate us."
Head coach Kathy Kolankiewicz said she has been shuffling the doubles teams to get good match-ups against the opponents.
"We've been splitting up Iva and Maja the last several matches, because we think it's best for the team in terms of match-ups," she said. "Their experience with doubles has helped the players that we've paired them up with become better."
In singles, No. 39-ranked Kovacek battled TCU's Leimbach for a win in a hard-fought three-set match. The first set ended with a one-sided 6-1 victory by Leimbach. Kovacek came back to win the second set with ease, 6-2. The final set was won by Kovacek 7-5 to earn the win over Leimbach, who is the No. 12 player in the nation.
Kovacek said although she had a rocky start, her singles play made up for it.
"We didn't serve well in doubles, so things just went bad from there," she said. "The day didn't end well overall, but I'm really happy with my win in singles over such a good player."
Abou-Zekry also played well in singles, notching a win against Nichols of the Horned Frogs. The two received a warning from the referee after exchanging words on the court.
The Lobos will play against No. 33 San Diego State today at 2 p.m. and the No. 53-ranked University of Nevada-Las Vegas on Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Lobo Tennis Club. The rest of their conference games will be played on the road.
The games played this weekend will determine the seeds for the MWC tournament starting on April 27.
Kolankiewicz said any team in the MWC has a good chance to take the championship this year.
"TCU is the favorite, but there are a lot of good teams in our conference and we love the competition," she said. "This weekend is huge for us, and if we get a good seed, there's a good chance that we can come out on top of the conference this year."
