Roos Face Oral Roberts and Washburn in Weekend Home Stand
2/18/2016 11:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
This Week and Up Next
UMKC men's tennis (3-3) added a match against Oral Roberts on Friday at the Carriage Club, before hosting Washburn at home on Saturday at the KC Raquet Club. The following weekend, they will head to California for matches against Santa Clara and UC-Santa Cruz.
The Opponents
Oral Roberts comes to Kansas City with a 4-4 overall record. The Golden Eagles have four players that boast four singles wins so far this season, while its leading doubles pair is at the No. 2 spot with a 3-3 record. UMKC is 15-21 all-time agianst ORU, winning the last five meetings, including a 5-2 victory last season in Tulsa.
Washburn, a Division II school, is 3-0 entering the weekend and coming off a win over nationally ranked Drury. The Ichabod doubles team of Blake Hunter and Alejandro Valarezo Plaza are ranked No. 22 in the nation and No. 1 in the regional rankings. They are 13-2 this season. Hunter is also ranked No. 8 in singles in the region and he is 10-3 this season. UMKC is 0-2 all-time against the Ichabods, but have not faced WU since 1993.
Hale Goes For 100
UMKC head coach Kendell Hale will be going for his 100th win on the men's side at UMKC this weekend. For his career, combined men and women, he has 406 wins, and 72 with the UMKC women.
All-Time Charts
The Roos have one current player ranked in the singles all-time top-10 chart in senior Andrey Smirnov at 10th all-time with 38 wins. Three current players are in the single season singles wins list with Mike Psarros and Airam Castellano each winning 19 matches last year (t-1st), while Smirnov tallied 18 wins (t-5th).
In doubles play, Psarros has 36 wins to rank tied for 10th, while Uldis Gaismins is 15th with 34 victories. For a single season, UMKC had both Smirnov and Gaismins break the school record with 20 wins last year, while Psarros and Castellano both won 16 doubles matches to rank tied for eighth.
Roos in the NCAA's
UMKC's has six appearances overall in the NCAA Tournament, falling to USC (1999), UCLA (2000), Baylor (2009), Texas (2011), Oklahoma (2012) and UCLA (2013) in the first round.
Head Coach Kendell Hale
Kendell Hale is in his ninth season as the head coach of the UMKC men's and women's tennis program. Overall, the 2015-16 season will be Hale's 22nd as a collegiate head coach, where he has compiled a 406-328 overall combined men's and women's record. On the women's side, he has a record of 72-108 at UMKC, while boasting a 99-85 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 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 eight seasons at the helm, Hale has coached 29 all-league honorees on the men's side and 16 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 nine winningest players in school history on the women's side, and four of the five top career win leaders on the men's side.
