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Lobos Gunning For NCAA Bid At MWC Tournament
UNM enters tournament 11-6 overall, 4-1 MWC.
April 22, 2003 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The newly-crowned Mountain West Conference co-champion UNM men's tennis team will seek to end a streak of four years of no NCAA postseason play, when it guns for an automatic bid into the big dance at this weekend's MWC Men's Tennis Championship. The winner of the six-team tournament will automatically advance to the NCAA tournament and the Lobos, with a first-round bye, will need to win two matches to earn the championship. TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE: Play kicks off Thursday, April 24 in Provo, Utah, as No. 4 Air Force Academy and No. 5 University of Utah do battle at 10 a.m. Later in the day, No. 3 Brigham Young University and No. 6 University of Nevada-Las Vegas face off. The winner of the latter match will face New Mexico at 1 p.m. Friday, April 25. The winner of the former match will face No. 1 seed San Diego State at 9 a.m. Friday. UNM VS. THE MWC: The Lobos finished the season at 11-6 overall and 4-1 in conference play. Only a loss to BYU prevented 56th-ranked New Mexico from claiming an outright regular season title. The Lobos beat every other conference team but the Cougars, including a 6-1 win over UNLV, a 4-3 win over then 34th-ranked SDSU, a 4-3 win over Air Force and a 6-1 win over Utah. RANKINGS: The Lobos are ranked 56th in the latest ITA Tennis/Omni Hotels collegiate poll of April 16. The Lobo doubles team of Ryan Stotland and Brent Salazar are ranked No. 32 in the nation. New Mexico has been ranked nationally for every match they've played, except for two (Brown University and UNLV). Other ranked Mountain West teams include SDSU (No. 32) and BYU (No. 62). SALAZAR NAMED MWC PLAYER OF THE WEEK:University of New Mexico senior Brent Salazar was named Mountain West Conference Men's Tennis Player of the Week for his key play in the Lobos' final three conference matches. Salazar recorded a 3-0 record in singles and doubles play, helping No. 56 New Mexico to victories over conference opponents Utah and Air Force. In the Lobo 4-3 win over the Utes, Salazar beat Tomasz Grzyb at No. 4 singles, 6-7, 7-6, 10-4. He also teamed with Ryan Stotland (No. 32 duo in the nation) to defeat Roeland Brateanu and Nick Coutts at No. 1 doubles, 8-5. Against Air Force, Salazar beat Jeff Olsen in straight sets (6-4, 6-3) at the No. 4 position, and partnered with Stotland to defeat No. 34 Carlos Lozano and Erik Nyman at No. 1 doubles, 8-4. He closed out the weekend beating Air Force's Chris Dong, 6-3, 6-4 at No. 4 singles and, again with Stotland, defeating Eric Pittman and Tyler McClung at No. 1 doubles, 8-6. RECENT RESULTS: New Mexico has won four of its last five dual matches and five of its last seven. Its only losses have come to 33rd-ranked Brown University and to BYU. BRONCO AND FLYIN' RYAN: New Mexico's 32nd-ranked doubles team of Ryan Stotland and Brent Salazar have been unbeatable as of late. Since dropping two matches on the team's trip to the University of Washington and the University of Oregon on January 24 and 26, the Lobo duo have won eight straight doubles matches. Their most high profile win came on March 30 over San Diego State's Oliver Maiberger and Ryan Redondo, who were the nation's No. 1 collegiate doubles team at the time. It was the second time this year that Stotland and Salazar defeated the Aztec duo. TOP SINGLES PERFORMERS: UNM's Divan Coetzee is also on a hot streak, having won nine of his last 10 singles matches. Salazar has won three singles matches in a row and David Kowalski has won four of his last five. Bart Scott has gone 5-5 in his last ten matches, but is consistently matched up with opponents' best players at the No. 1 position. Coetzee and Scott both have 29 singles wins in the fall and spring combined.
INJURY UPDATE: Stotland is still nursing a stress fracture in his foot, and
is questionable for the MWC Tournament. He is certain to play with Salazar
but his status for singles matches is up in the air. Stotland has not played
a singles match since March 25.
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