UMKC Men Postponed, Face Bearcats Thursday, Women's Match Cancelled
4/14/2015 5:34:00 PM | Men's Tennis
THIS WEEK
UMKC (11-11, 1-3 WAC) men's tennis had its match postponed to Thursday due to weather conditions on Wednesda, playing a non-conference contest against Northwest Missouri State.
The UMKC women's tennis squad's match at NWMSU has been cancelled due to the number of allowable matches played this season by NWMSU being exceeded.
THE OPPONENT
The Bearcats are 12-5 overall entering the match, and are led by Romain Boissinot, posting a 15-8 mark and playing No. 1. UMKC has a 2-8 record against the Bearcats all-time, and a 2-4 mark under Kendell Hale, dropping the last three. NWMSU coach Mark Rosewell coached Hale as a player at NWMSU.
WHO IS COMPETING
UMKC will have Airam Castellano, Conner Edwards, Uldis Gaismins, Amaury Navette, Vinh Pham, Mike Psarros and Andrey Smirnov this week.
SUPER SENIOR, ALL-TIME LEADER
Conner Edwards has posted a 18-8 overall record so far this season, surpassing his win total from his first three seasons combined. The amount of improvement in the offseason has been remarkable, as he currently co-leads the team in singles wins and leads the team in doubles victories.
RECORD WATCH
Airam Castellano and Conner Edwards both have 18 wins this season, and need one to match Grant Fleming's single season record of 19. In doubles, Edwards, Andrey Smirnov and Uldis Gaismins each have 18 wins to tie for the single season record. For a career, Edwards has 47 doubles wins, ranking No. 1 all-time.
FIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Conner Edwards became the third consecutive 'Roo to start the season to earn WAC Men's Tennis Athlete of the Week. In the first two weeks of the spring season, Airam Castellano and Mike Psarros pulled home the honors for UMKC. Castellano has since won two more POW honors, his third career accolade as a freshman.
THE WAC TOURNEY
The WAC Tournament will be played April 24-26 in Kansas City, hosted by the 'Roos. UMKC will be the No. 3 seed in the tourney and face second seeded UTPA in the semifinals on April 25 at 1 pm.
'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 398-318 overall combined men's and women's record. On the women's side, he has a record of 70-103 at UMKC, while boasting a 93-81 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
