Roos Host McPherson, Start WAC Play this Week
3/21/2016 1:27:00 PM | Men's Tennis
This Week and Up Next
UMKC men's tennis (8-6) has a big week as it hosts McPherson on Tuesday afternoon before beginning WAC play in Las Cruces, N.M. vs. Chicago State and Seattle on Thursday and Friday. The following week they host a WAC Cluster.
The Opponents
McPherson College is 1-3 coming into Tuesday's action, and will also be facing Rockhurst earlier in the day. An NAIA affiliated school, they are led by Ahmed Lahlou witha 2-2 record out of the No. 2-3 positions. This will be the first ever meeting between the two schools.
Chicago State is 2-11 overall, and will also be opening WAC play with the Roos. They are coming off a tight 4-3 loss at Detroit. Individually, Gonzalo Martinez leads the way with a 10-10 overall record out of the No. 4 and 5 positions. UMKC is 9-2 against the Cougars, and have not lost to them since 2002. The Roos have won the last six meetings in the series.
Seattle comes into the weekend with an 8-10 overall mark. They are led by Connor Leahy, who is the only starter with a winning record at 14-8, playing the 4-6 positions. The Redhawks have won five straight matches as well. The Roos have never faced Seattle, as the Redhawks forfeited last season's meeting.
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 ninth with 40. Others coming up on the top 10 are Airam Castellano and Vinh Pham with 36 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 17 wins, good for a tie for seventh.
In doubles play, Psarros has 42 wins to rank sixth, while Uldis Gaismins is ninth with 39 victories, and Smirnov is 11th with 38. For a single season, Castellano and Psarros each have 15 victories, just one 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 414-336 overall combined men's and women's record. On the women's side, he has a record of 75-113 at UMKC, while boasting a 104-88 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 SL 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
