Kansas City Set To Battle Chicago State in WAC Championships Friday
4/24/2014 5:09:00 PM | Men's Tennis
THIS WEEK
Kansas City (7-14) men's tennis makes its first ever trip to the WAC Championships on Friday in Las Cruces, N.M. The 'Roos are the No. 4 seed and will face off against fifth-seeded Chicago State at 2:00 p.m. CT at the New Mexico State Tennis Complex, vying for the right to face the hosts and top seed on Saturday in the semifinals.
THE OPPONENT
The Cougars of Chicago State are 5-21 overall on the season, and seeded fifth in the WAC Tournament. This is also their first ever appearance in the tourney. They are led by Mario Noboa with 14 wins and Sergiu Muresan with 13 victories, both of which have played the 1-3 positions. The 'Roos are 7-2 all-time against the Cougars, and have won four straight meetings. The last win for CSU came in April of 2002 by a 4-3 score.
WHO IS COMPETING
Kansas City will have Tomas Patino, Andrey Smirnov, Mike Psarros, Vinh Pham, Uldis Gaismins, Conner Edwards, and Jai Grewal all available.
THE WAC TOURNAMENT
The 'Roos are playing in their 11th consecutive conference tournament, and 20th overall this week. The 'Roos have won the conference tournament title six times in their history, including the last three years. Under Hale they have four titles and five championship match appearances in six years with an impressive 9-2 overall record.
'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 59-90 at UMKC, while boasting an 83-69 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 selected as the 2010 USTPA National Coach of the Year for his turnaround effort, as well as 2009 and 2013 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 coached three Summit League Players of the Year and three Summit League Newcomers of the Year.
Hale 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.
