'Roos Head to Wichita State for Saturday Dual
2/13/2015 8:48:00 PM | Men's Tennis
THIS WEEK
Kansas City (3-4) men's tennis heads heads to Wichita for a contest against the Shockers on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. The originally scheduled match with Rockhurst on Sunday has been postponed, and will be rescheduled for a later date.
THE OPPONENT
Wichita State enters the weekend with a 5-2 overall record, led by the No. 39 player in the nation, Tin Ostojic. He is 12-3 on the season, and plays at the No. 1 position in the lineup. UMKC is 1-13 overall against WSU, winning only in 1999.
WHO IS COMPETING
UMKC will be sending Airam Castellano, Conner Edwards, Uldis Gaismins, Amaury Navette, Vinh Pham, Mike Psarros and Andrey Smirnov this weekend.
LAST TIME OUT
The 'Roos dropped three matches last week at Drake, to some tough competition. They didn't get shut out though, scoring points in each of the three matches.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Conner Edwards became the third consecutive 'Roo to earn WAC Men's Tennis Athlete of the Week. He went 3-0 on the week in singles play, winning all of his matches against No. 41 Drake, Gonzaga and South Alabama. In the first two weeks of the spring season, Airam Castellano and Mike Psarros pulled home the honors for UMKC.
THE WAC
The WAC will have a regular season champion crowned this year, as well as a conference tournament champion. The teams will be seeded in the league tournament based on the conference standings. The WAC Tournament will be played April 24-26 in Kansas City, hosted by the 'Roos.
'ROOS IN THE NCAAS
2013 was UMKC's sixth appearance overall 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 eighth season as the head coach of the UMKC men's and women's tennis program. Overall, the 2014-15 season is Hale's 21st as a collegiate head coach, where he has compiled a 385-304 overall combined men's and women's record. On the women's side, he has a record of 63-96 at UMKC, while boasting an 87-74 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 conference regular season titles, four conference tournament crowns and four NCAA Tournament appearances. He was also selected as the 2010 USPTA 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 seven seasons at the helm, Hale has coached 25 all-league honorees on the men's side and 14 all-league selections on the women's side. He's also coached three Conference Players of the Year and three 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
