'Roos To Play Four Duals in Five Days, Face Three on the Road
2/6/2014 6:57:00 PM | Men's Tennis
THIS WEEK
Kansas City (1-1) heads out on the road for the first time this Friday when it faces UW-Green Bay and Drake in Des Moines, Iowa, followed by a contest with William Jewell at the Carriage Club on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. The 'Roos face Iowa on Tuesday in Iowa City as well.
THE OPPONENTS
Green Bay comes into the weekend with a 3-3 overall mark, with wins over IUPUI and DePaul. The Phoenix is led by Leo Gomez Islinger with a 4-2 record out of the No. 1-3 positions.
Drake is 2-3 on the season, but ranked No. 42 in the nation. They are led by three players with double-digit wins, in Ben Lott, Matt Frost, and Alen Salibasic.
William Jewell is 1-0 on the season, taking a 5-4 decision over Ottawa last week. The Cardinals will be hitting the road for the first time this season on Sunday.
Iowa is 2-0 on the season after wins against Western Illinois and Illinois State. They are paced by Jonas Dierckx and Juan Estenssoro at the No. 1 and 2 spots.
WHO IS COMPETING
Kansas City will have Tomas Patino, Mike Psarros, Andrey Smirnov, Daniil Ivanov, Vinh Pham, Conner Edwards, Uldis Gaismins and Daniel De Zamacona all playing.
LAST TIME OUT
(Kansas City, Mo.) - Kansas City men's tennis dropped a heartbreaker on Friday to Creighton, 4-3. The 'Roos led 3-2 with two matches going into third sets, but the Bluejays claimed both of them on the way to the victory.
THE WAC
WAC play will be a bit different than what it was in the Summit League. There will be no regular season champion crowned, only a conference tournament champion. The teams will be seeded in the league tournament based on ITA rankings. The WAC Tournament will be played April 25-27 in Las Cruces, N.M., hosted by New Mexico State.
'ROOS IN THE NCAAS
Last season was UMKC's sixth appearance overall and the third straight in the NCAA Tournament, falling to USC (1999), UCLA (2000), Baylor (2009), Texas (2011), Oklahoma (2012) and UCLA (2013).
HEAD COACH KENDELL HALE
Kendell Hale is in his seventh season as the head coach of the UMKC men's and women's tennis program. Overall, the 2013-14 season will be Hale's 20th as a collegiate head coach, where he compiled a 364-267 overall combined men's and women's record coming in. On the women's side, he has a current record of 56-78 at UMKC, while boasting a 77-56 mark with the men.
Hale has orchestrated an amazing turnaround with the men's and women's tennis programs since joining the department in 2008. He has guided both the men's and women's squads to numerous school-record win totals and has produced four Summit League regular season titles, four Summit League Tournament crowns and four NCAA Tournament appearances. He was also selected at the 2010 USTPA National Coach of the Year for his turnaround effort, as well as 2009 USPTA Missouri Valley College Coach of the Year, the 2011 Summit League Men's Coach of the Year, and 2013 Summit League Women's Coach of the Year.
In six seasons at the helm, Hale has coached 23 all-league honorees on the men's side and 12 all-league selections on the women's side. He's also coached three Summit League Players of the Year and three Summit League Newcomers of the Year.
He has also coached the five winningest players in school history on the women's side, and four of the five top career win leaders on the men's side.
Players Mentioned
