If this weekend’s fall invitational was a quiz for the UNM women’s tennis team, then the Lobos need to study more.
Even though UNM combined for a 1-41 record this weekend, head coach Roy Cañada said this year the Lobos are a strong young team.
“If I were to compare this to academic terms, I approached this weekend as a quiz for us,” he said. “It’s not the final exam. The good thing about a quiz is that it is a great way to prepare for the final. It lets us know what things we need to work on to improve.”
The Lobos will need to gain some experience in the near future, but they got a whole heap of it by hosting their fall invitational this weekend at the Lobo Tennis Club.
The bright spots were few and far between: Laura Richardson captured the Lobos’ lone win, defeating Jane Huh of the University of Arizona 6-3, 6-1. Anya Villanueva-Forte stood toe-to-toe with the No. 29 player in the country, but fell 6-0, 6-3 to Arizona’s Natasha Marks.
As a whole, UNM was tested, facing nationally ranked opponents, including No. 34
Boise State, No. 39 Denver and Texas Tech.
“We don’t have any seniors on our roster, and our two juniors are the only players with real collegiate experience,” he said. “We had four players who were making their collegiate debuts this weekend, and two others who didn’t see a lot of time in the lineup last year.”
UNM lost seniors Ola Abou-Zekry, Mackenzie White and Maria Sotirchos when they graduated in May; sophomore Emma Hayman transferred to a different school and sophomore Victoria Tessmar returned to Sweden.
That left juniors Ashley Bonner and Anya Villanueva-Forte and sophomores Manumea Durie and Eliane Bourdages as the lone returners this season.
“Anya and Ashley were kind of thrust into the leadership role,” Cañada said. “They went from competing for a spot on the team last year to the No. 1 and No. 2 spots this season.”
The Lobos picked up newcomers Kristin Eggleston of Palm Desert, Calif., Michaela Oldani of Scottsdale, Ariz., Laura Richardson of St. Louis, Mo., and Amy Shipperd of Melbourne, Australia.
“The freshmen bring a lot of energy and excitement to the team,” Bonner said. “The cool thing is that they were already e-mailing each other before they all came here.
Hopefully, Cañada said, this is just the beginning for the Lobos.
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“We play these teams again in the spring when it counts,” he said. “Having already played them, we’ll be ready for them next time.”
