Top Seeded Kangaroos Head To Texas For WAC Championship
4/29/2016 9:36:00 AM | Men's Tennis
This Week and Up Next
UMKC men's tennis enters the 2016 WAC Men's Tennis Championship as the top seed and will face the winner of No. 4 Seattle and No. 5 Chicago State at 1 p.m. on Apr. 30 in semifinal action. With a win, the 'Roos will take on the winner of No. 2 New Mexico State and No. 3 UTRGV on Sunday at 1 p.m. for the WAC Title and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
The Opponents
Seattle enters the tournament with a 10-14 record overall and a 1-4 mark in WAC play, picking up their lone win against Chicago State. Connor Leahy is tops on the team with 16 wins. The Cougars, meanwhile, are just 3-21 on the season and 0-5 in the WAC.
The Aggies are led by 20 match winners Christofer Goncalves (21) and Enrique Asmar (20), while Stijn de Haan has 19. For the Vaqueros, Juan Cruz Soria has a team best 20 wins, while Elliot Johnstone has 15 and Koby Jansen has 14.
First Meeting
In the first meeting with the Cougars, the 'Roos swept the match winning 7-0. Against the Redhawks, however, the 'Roos won just 4-3, falling 2-1 in doubles, but taking the matches at No. 1 (Castellano), No. 3 (Gaismins), No. 4 (Psarros) and No. 6 (Navette).
Against New Mexico State, UMKC fell 4-3 getting points from doubles, Castellano (No. 1) and Gaismins (No. 3) and against UTRGV won 5-2 with points from doubles, Castellano, Smirnov, Gaismins and Navette.
All-Time Charts
The Roos have four current players ranked in the singles all-time chart with Andrey Smirnov and Mike Psarros ranked fith all-time with 46 wins, while Airam Castellano is eighth at 44 and Uldis Gaismins is ninth with 41. For a single season, Castellano extended the school record last week with his 25th win, while Amaury Navette is second with 22 wins and Psarros is third with 21.
In doubles play, Psarros has 50 the most in school history, while Uldis Gaismins is tied for second with 47 victories and Smirnov is eighth with 43. For a single season, Castellano and Psarros each have 23 wins, a new UMKC record.
Players of the Week
This season, the 'Roos have garnered four WAC Player of the Week awards with each of Airam Castellano and Mike Psarros earning a pair of honors.
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 421-342 overall combined men's and women's record. On the women's side, he has a record of 77-118 at UMKC, while boasting a 109-89 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 five 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
