The Western New Mexico University tennis teams head to California to play four schools this week.
The first stop will be in San Diego against Point Loma Nazarene. On the women’s side, PLU is 1-2 with a win over Cal State LA, but were defeated by Azusa Pacific and UC San Diego. The Lady Lions have just one senior in Preethika Venugopal . Venugopal, Kirsty Mountain and Regina von Koch all have two singles wins apiece. The duo of Madeline Cunningham/Jen Weissmann have two wins to lead doubles play.
WNMU played PLU last year in Phoenix falling, 9-0.
On the men’s side, the Lions are 0-2 with losses against UC San Diego and Azusa Pacific. The team has no seniors but has six juniors. CJ Erion leads in singles play with a pair of victories. They have yet to win a doubles match this year.
WNMU bested PLU last year in Phoenix, 6-3.
WNMU will face PLU at 2 p.m. (men’s) and 4 p.m. (women’s) Pacific Time on Wednesday.
The next day on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time WNMU will play against Azusa Pacific in Azusa, Calif. Both teams will start at the same time.
On the women’s side, Azusa Pacific is 2-2 with wins against Point Loma and Vanguard. They have been defeated by Cal State Fullerton and UC San Diego. They have two seniors and have been led in singles play by Jackie Resler who is 4-0. In doubles play, Resler/Valeriia Kashina have a pair of victories.
APU defeated WNMU, 9-0, in Phoenix last year.
On the men’s side, APU is 2-1 with wins against UC San Diego and Point Loma, They fell last time out against Vanguard. They have a pair of seniors and one of them, Gary Yam, is tied with Tomas Aranguiz and Jan Meyer for the most singles wins with two apiece. Meyer/Yam, along with Ben Eger/Pascal Engel have each collected two doubles victories.
APU claimed a 9-0 win last year against WNMU in Phoenix.
On Friday, WNMU will return to San Diego to face UC San Diego beginning with the women’s match at 2 p.m. and then the men’s at 3:30 p.m. Pacific Time.
On the women’s side, the Lady Tritons have already played seven matches going 3-4. They have wins over Azusa Pacific, Point Loma and Hawaii Hilo. Their losses have come against UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton, BYU-Hawaii and Hawaii Pacific. They have no seniors and three juniors on their roster. One of those juniors, Kyra Scott, leads the team in singles victories going 5-1 all at No. 1. In doubles, Nava Nowamooz/Shannon Theisen have posted three doubles wins.
Last year, UC San Diego claimed a 9-0 win in San Diego against WNMU.
On the men’s side, the Tritons are 4-3 so far. Their victories have come against Point Loma, BYU-Hawaii, and Hawaii-Hilo (twice). Their losses have been against Azusa Pacific, University of San Diego and Hawaii Pacific. They have a senior-laden team with six seniors on their squad. Four players have four singles victories in Rajeev Herekar, Mark Meyer, Alexandra Miaule and Horea Porutiu. Hererkar/Axel Bouillin are 6-0 in doubles play at the top flight.
Last year, UC San Diego came away with an 8-1 win over WNMU in San Diego.
WNMU will conclude the trip on Saturday against Holy Names in Azusa with the both teams playing at 1 p.m. Pacific Time.
On the women’s side, Holy Names is 2-1 with wins against Cal State Stanislaus and UC Santa Cruz. Their only loss came against Sonoma State. The Lady Hawks have two seniors and one of them, Jessica Ho, is tied with Amaru Hernandez, Chelsea Smithback and Leticia Vieira for most singles wins with two. Mariel Bautista/Vieira, fellow senior Lexi Bevins/Hernandez each have a doubles win.
This will be the first meeting between the teams in at least the past 10 years.
On the men’s side, Holy Names has only played one match falling to UC Davis. The team features six seniors. After the first match their seniors fill slots one, three, four and five. In doubles they each play in one of the three spots.
It’s the same for the men as well having not faced Holy Names in at least the past 10 years.
The Lady Mustangs are 1-1 on the season having fallen to Grand Canyon, but defeating Eastern Arizona. Annica Betz (Celle, Germany/Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria Gymnasium), Pauline Emin (Viry, France/Lycee Arbez Carme), Ashley Newell (Las Vegas, NV/Silverado), Tiffany Newell (Las Vegas, NV/Silverado ), Claudia Osuna (Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico/Tec Milenio ) and Ganna Tiurina (Kiev, Ukraine/M.M. Gromov #227) each have singles wins to start the year. In doubles, Betz/Tiurina, Emin/Ashley Newell (Las Vegas, NV/Silverado) and Diamond Morrill (Carlsbad, NM/Carlsbad)/Tiffany Newell (Las Vegas, NV/Silverado ) all have victories this season so far.
The Mustangs are 0-1 with their only match coming at Division I Grand Canyon. The lineup for that match was Juan Pablo Fuentes (Guadalajara, Mexico) (No. 1), Jean-Laurent Pageault (Perrigny, France/Academi des Hauts de Nimes) (No. 2), Tristan Da Lio (Casablanca/Academie des Hauts de Nimes) (No. 3), Vladimir Gnilozubov (Kazakhstan, Astana/Kazakhstan) (No. 4), Alvaro Nunez (Madrid, Spain) (No. 5) and Omar Lopez (Naucalpan, Mexico) (No. 6). In doubles, Fuentes/Pageault played at the top flight, Da Lio/Lopez at No. 2 and Gnilozubov/Nunez at No. 3.
