Roos Travel to Creighton for Saturday Dual
3/18/2016 10:30:00 AM | Men's Tennis
This Week and Up Next
UMKC men's tennis (7-6) heads back out on the road for a match at Creighton this Saturday at 1 p.m. UMKC will then host McPherson on Tuesday afternoon before beginning WAC play in Las Cruces, N.M. vs. Chicago State and Seattle on March 24 and 25.
The Opponent
Creighton enters the week with a 6-4 overall record, and are paced individually by Harrison Lang at the No. 3 spot with a 7-3 overall record. Creighton has one common opponent with the Roos in Omaha, with both schools winning 7-0. UMKC is 11-16 all-time against the Bluejays, dropping the last contest in 2014 by a 4-3 decision.
All-Time Charts
The Roos have two current players ranked in the singles all-time top-10 chart with Andrey Smirnov tied for sixth all-time with 41 wins and Mike Psarros tied for 10th with 39. Others coming up on the top 10 are Airam Castellano and Vinh Pham with 35 wins each. In this season, UMKC has several players looking to crack the top 10 in singles, with Castellano and Amaury Navette leading the way with 16 wins, good for a tie for eighth.
In doubles play, Psarros has 41 wins to rank tied for sixth, while Uldis Gaismins is 10th with 38 victories, and Smirnov is 12th with 37. For a single season, Castellano and Psarros each have 14 victories, just two away from cracking the top 10.
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.
WAC Honors
UMKC has been honored by the WAC twice this year, with Airam Castellano earning Player of the Month honors back in October, and Mike Psarros grabbing Player of the Week accolades on March 1.
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 is Hale's 22nd as a collegiate head coach, where he has compiled a 412-335 overall combined men's and women's record. On the women's side, he has a record of 74-112 at UMKC, while boasting a 103-88 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.
Players Mentioned
