United Athletic Conference

Hawaii Tennis Complex

Related Material

2005 Brackets.pdf Championship Cover.pdf Men's Tennis Teams.pdf Women's Tennis Teams.pdf WAC History & Records.pdf

WHAT
2005 WAC Tennis Championship

WHERE
Hawaii Tennis Complex
Honolulu, Hawaii (Hawaii, host)
Host Tournament Site

WHEN
Women - March 21-23, 2005
Men - March 22-24, 2005

CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW
MEN
This season, the Western Athletic Conference Tournament will be held in Honolulu, Hawaii on the campus of the University of Hawaii, April 21-24. This is the first time that Hawaii has hosted the tennis tournament. The 2004 champion, Rice, will look to defend its title. Boise State will be the tournaments No. 1 seed this season, earning the automatic bye. The mens and womens tournament are combined. The men begin play on Friday, April 22 with the quarterfinals.

Boise State Broncos
In the 2004 WAC Tournament, the Broncos defeated Hawaii in the quarterfinals, 4-0. In the semifinals, Boise State fell to SMU, 4-2. The Broncos are led by freshman Luke Shields who twice this spring was named WAC Player of the Week and is ranked nationally among singles players. Shields combines with junior Thomas Schoeck to form the teams No. 1 doubles team. They are also ranked nationally in doubles. Boise States No. 2 doubles team of seniors Ikaika Jobe and Matias Silva have also been nationally ranked this season. Boise State mens tennis coach Greg Patton is in his ninth season directing the Bronco mens program. He was selected the 1997 ITA/NCAA Mens Tennis Coach of the Year.

Fresno State
Fresno State enters the WAC Tournament having lost eight of its last 10 matches. The Bulldogs have dropped their first match at the WAC Tournament in two of the last three years. This will be head coach Jay Udwadias first WAC Tournament. Fresno State is looking for its first WAC title since the 1999 season. The Bulldogs have claimed two conference crowns, one in 1996 and the other in '99. They have also been the runners-up three times (1993, '95, 2001). Fresno State withstood some setbacks during the fall and pieced together quite a successful year. The Bulldogs remained in the national rankings all season despite the August resignation of former coach Brad Dancer, who became an assistant at Illinois, as well as the loss of top player Greg Shearer, who transferred to Baylor.

Hawaii Rainbows
Last season, the Rainbows lost in the quarterfinals to Boise, 4-0. Hawaii has never finished better than fifth dating back to 1980. This is the first time that Hawaii is hosting the WAC Tennis Championship. Junior Bryon Weinberg, who leads the team with 16 singles victories, was honored as the WACs Player of the Month for November. Weinberg posted the biggest upset of his career, defeating No. 60 Nic Beaque of San Diego to earn WAC Player of the Week honors in March. Junior Ryan Sceats reeled off 10-consecutive singles victories at the No. 3 court beginning on Feb. 5 and owned a 13-2 mark in dual competition in the regular season.

Nevada Wolf Pack
In the 2004 tournament, the Wolf Pack lost in the quarterfinals to SMU, 4-0. Nevada head coach Ryan Johnston was pulling double duty for most of the 2005 season, as he was coaching both the men and womens teams until the Wolf Pack named Jay Stearley the interim coach for the womens team. Ryan Johnston is in his seventh season at the helm of the Wolf Pack. The Wolf Pack finished tied for fifth in the WAC last year after tallying one of its best seasons since 1996-97. Nevadas nine wins in 2003-04 were the most since going 11-9 in 1996-97. The Wolf Pack have tied that mark with a 9-10 record heading into the tournament.

Rice Owls
The Owls ended the dual match season at 13-8 after losses to Texas and SMU, and a win at home against Division II Abilene Christian. Robert Searle and Ralph Knupfer were the only two Owls to post two wins. Searle did not play versus ACU and Knupfers match against ACU was suspended. Rices 13-8 record is the third-straight winning season for the Owls and the ninth in the last 10 years. Last season, Rice beat Tulsa and SMU, 4-1 to capture the title. The title was Rices first, taking the title at home at the Jake Hess Tennis Stadium in Houston.

SMU Mustangs
Last year, the Mustangs earned wins over Nevada, 4-0, and Boise State, 4-2 in the first two rounds. In the championship match, SMU fell to host-school, Rice, 4-1. The Mustangs have two WAC titles, winning the 1998 and 2002 tournaments. Head coach Carl Neufeld won his 400th match on March 12 with a, 6-1, victory over Illinois State. SMU has won three WAC Player of the Week honors this spring, including Peter Oredsson (2) and David Kuczer. Freshman David Kuczer won 16 matches in the regular season.

Tulsa Golden Hurricane
Last season in the first round, Tulsa defeated Fresno State, 4-3. Tulsa lost to Ricein the semifinals, 4-1. Freshman Will Gray is already in the Tulsa record books. Gray had 28 singles wins, tied for eighth on the schools single season wins list. Tulsa has three Oklahomans on its 2004-05 roster. Ross Cunningham, Gray and Andy Connelly are also all freshmen.Tulsa began the season 8-0, its best start since the 1994-95 season. The Golden Hurricane also opened the season with 14 home matches.

WOMEN
Boise State Broncos
The Bronco womens tennis team is led by three seniors in 2005, Alissa Ayling from England, and Carolina Pongratz and Anna Curtolo who are both from Sweden. The Broncos Megan Biorkman, who most often plays at the No. 1 and 2 positions for the Broncos, has an older brother, Jonny, who also played tennis at Boise State (1997-02). The Broncos four underclassmen are sophomores Tiffany Coll and Stacey Housley and freshmen Whitney Megale and Nadja Woschek. The Broncos Mark Tichenor is in his sixth season as Boise States womens head coach. Last year, the Broncos fell in the quarterfinals to Rice, 4-1.

Fresno State Bulldogs
Fresno State looks to become the first team since BYU from 1993-96 to win the WAC Tournament four-straight years. The Bulldogs have a nine-match WAC Tournament winning streak, dating back to a loss in the 2001 WAC Championship match against TCU. Senior Lucia Sainz leads the team in both singles (24) and doubles (26) wins this season. Junior Katharina Winerhalter has won five consecutive singles matches, losing only a combined total of 12 games in those victories.

Hawaii Rainbow Wahine
Last season, the Rainbow Wahine won their first round match against Nevada, 5-0. In the quarterfinals, Hawaii, lost to SMU, 4-0. Hawaii returns seven letterwinners, including four four-year seniors, from last seasons 9-14 team. Senior Lauren Fitzgerald earned her first career ITA national ranking (No. 94), after upsetting then-No. 7 Diane Hollands in straight sets during the inaugural Rainbow Wahine Invitational in November. Fitzgerald eventually attained a career-best No. 75 ranking and earned WAC Player of the Month honors for November. Fitzgerald led the team with 15 singles victories at the top spot, through March 30, and posted a career-best six-match win streak from March 2-21.

Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters
Last season, the Lady Techsters fell in the first round to San Jose State, 4-2. Since Louisiana Tech joined the league in 2002, the Lady Techsters have been unable to advance past the first round. Louisiana Techs 9-12 record last season was the Techsters best mark since going 11-15 in 2000. The Lady Techsters are looking to post their first winning season since going 12-4 in 1996. Louisiana Tech had no seniors on last years squad and returned six of seven letterwinners, including seniors Anabella Duque, Holly Ready and Saharai Uriarte

Nevada Wolf Pack
Nevada lost to Hawaii, 5-0, in the first round of the 2004 WAC Championship. But the Wolf Pack has advanced to the quarterfinals in three of its four years in the WAC. Tied for ninth in the WAC last season after going 1-17 in dual match competition. Jay Stearley took over the program as interim head coach at the beginning of the dual match season from 16-year head coach Kurt Richter. A former academic all-WAC player under current mens coach Ryan Johnston, Stearley has spent the last four seasons as the assistant coach for the mens team. The Nevada womens team picked up its first-ever WAC tournament win in 2003 when it defeated Louisiana Tech 4-0 in the play-in bracket.

Rice Owls
After a first round bye, Rice defeated Boise State in the quarterfinals of the 2004 championship, 4-1. The Owls run came to an end in the semifinals, losing to eventual champion, Fresno State, 4-1. Rice has played in the semis the past two season.Rice is led by junior Blair DiSesa who has been ranked in the ITA top-100 for the majority of the 2005 season. She has won over 15 matches at the number one singles position this season, and over 70 for her career. Rices lone senior, Tracie Chong, has contributed mightily in Rices success this season also posting over 15 wins this spring. The Owls achieved their highest ITA ranking since December of 1996 when they checked in at 29th in mid-March. Rice has steadily climbed the rankings this season after beginning the season ranked 67th.

San Jose State Spartans
The Spartans defeated Louisiana Tech in the first round in 2004, 4-2. Eventual champions, Fresno State, defeated San Jose State 4-0 in the quarterfinals. Head coach Anh-Dao Nguyen is the last Spartan to win a singles title at a conference championship tournament. She was the champion at number-five singles as a San Jose State sophomore in 1984. For the first time in the 21st century, San Jose State has three players who have at least 10 wins and have a winning record in singles competition. Freshman Ashley Tavita leads the team in singles victories. She is the only player on the squad who has played in every position on the singles ladder in dual match competition.

SMU Mustangs
SMU has finished no lower than third place at the WAC Championship since the 2002 season, taking second in 2002 and 2004. Last year, the Mustangs picked up a Quarterfinal win against Hawaii, 4-0. SMU then defeated Tulsa, 4-3 in the semifinals before falling to Fresno State in the title match, 4-3. Head coach Rob Howarth is in his second season leading the Mustangs. In his first season, he led the Mustangs to the WAC Championship match where they fell to Fresno State, 4-2. SMU finished second at last seasons WAC Championships, knocking off Hawaii and Tulsa en route to the championship match.

UTEP Miners
In 2004, the Miners lost in the quarterfinals to Tulsa, 4-1. UTEP is 7-20 all-time in the WAC Tournament. Seniors Kendall Exelby and Ta Spirta both rank among the top-seven at UTEP in career singles victories. Freshman Weronika Bloczynska and Spirta have each been named WAC Player of the Week this spring. Freshman Teri Wilkerson won two tournaments in the fall, becoming just the second player in school history to win multiple singles titles in the same season.

Tulsa Golden Hurricane
Last season, Tulsa defeated UTEP in the quarterfinals, 4-1 before falling to SMU in a hard-fought semifinal match, 4-3. Paige McMurray is in her seventh season as head coach of the Tulsa women. Tulsa finished third at the 2004 WAC Tournament, knocking off UTEP, 4-1, in the quarterfinals, before falling to SMU, 4-2, in the semifinals. The Golden Hurricane finished their season with a record of 16-9 and lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

CHAMPIONSHIP PROGRAM
Click on Championship Program's to the right to view the cover, see your favorite school's team notes, rosters, schedules and pictures and the conference history and records.