The UNM women’s tennis team took the gold medals this past weekend at the Boise State Invitational by winning the individual and doubles tournaments.
Sophomore Michaela Bezdickova won the Blue Flight singles championship after defeating Boise State’s Marlena Pietzuch 6-2, 6-1. Bezdickova knocked off three Boise State players on her way to the title.
She didn’t stop there as she won the doubles competition with her teammate, sophomore Alyssa Caffey, defeating Boise State’s Manuela and Marlena Pietzuch with a score of 8-6.
Bezdickova said she’s pleased to see the team sweep of the competition.
“We did pretty well,” she said. “We won all of the major categories in singles and doubles. We couldn’t be more successful than what happened this weekend.”
The Lobos also dominated both the singles and doubles tournament in the second-tier Orange Flight Championship.
Caffey won the Orange Flight singles championship and juniors Kristin Eggleston and Laura Richardson took the doubles title.
Caffey said part of the team’s success comes from the hard work it has been putting in at practice.
“We just need to keep working hard, we’re running our stadium every Tuesday, we have practice every day, and hopefully we’ll keep getting better,” Caffey said.
Head coach Roy Canada said he was proud of what his team was able to accomplish over the weekend and wants winning to become the new norm for the team.
“This tournament sets the tone for us in keeping with our mission this year: to make victory the pattern, to make success the norm,” he said.
The team lost Anya Villanueva and Ashley Bonner to graduation last year. Caffey said the group of freshmen has really made the teamwork harder because it means its playing spot is always at risk.
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“We have five new girls this year, so it brings more competition … and we all have to play each other and compete for a spot, which makes us better,” Caffey said.
In a week the team travels to Las Vegas, Nev., to compete in the five-day ITA Regional Championship.
Caffey said that the condition of the team is going to continue to get better and help it when it has a lot of matches.
“The team played well and we fought really hard,” she said. “Some girls were down on their matches and never gave up and kept fighting. Our fitness level was really good; it was better than most teams, so we were able to get through the long matches very well.”
UNM Defeats Boise State
6-2, 6-1
