2013 Season Outlook Men
On the heels of its worst season since 2006, the Northern Arizona men’s tennis team is ready to turn the page as they embark on the 2013 spring season with its eyes squarely on returning to the Big Sky Championship. The Lumberjacks are coming off a 6-16 season in 2012, finishing in a three-way tie for sixth in the conference with a 2-6 Big Sky record. But with four starters back, the uphill climb back to the conference championship may not be so steep, as the Lumberjacks were picked to finish sixth in the Big Sky preseason poll with the top six qualifying for the championship tournament. The Lumberjacks did lose their No. 1 singles player from a year ago in Robin Pezzutto, but director of tennis Kim Bruno has a quartet of guys that can fill the void led by junior Dominic Bermudez. Bermudez, the team’s lone returning All-Big Sky performer, earned second team all-conference honors last season after a stellar sophomore campaign. He led the team in victories in just his second season, posting a 12-9 singles record and a 7-1 mark against Big Sky opponents while serving as the team’s primary No. 3 singles player. Bermudez was one of just seven players to compile at least seven conference victories and he had the conference’s second highest overall winning percentage at the No. 3 spot among players that played at least eight matches there. Bermudez will be flanked by a trio of returning seniors in Shaun Waters, Patrick Schimmelbauer and Robert Martin, who occupied the No. 2, 4 and 5 spots respectively in the NAU lineup last season. Schimmelbauer, the team’s only fouryear player, is expected to have the first shot at the top spot in this season’s lineup after serving as the Lumberjacks’ primary No. 2 player as a freshman and sophomore. He and Waters posted identical 9-12 records a year ago, tying for second on the team behind Bermudez. Waters also comes into the spring on a high note after an impressive fall season. The second-year transfer from Middle Tennessee State recorded a teambest 4-3 mark in the fall and reached the round of 16 of the singles main draw at the USTA/ITA Mountain Regional Championships in October, upsetting the 16th-seeded player in the process. Bruno also returns a fifth returning letterwinner in sophomore Trevor Unger, who partnered with Waters to form the team’s primary No. 1 doubles team in 2012. Unger also competed at the No. 6 singles position in seven matches and is a leading candidate for a spot in this season’s singles lineup. Rounding out the 2013 roster are three newcomers to the team whom as a group will create depth and flexibility to the lineup. Junior Alan Barrios and sophomore Kester Black bring collegiate experience to the team while freshman Sarp Laleli comes to the mountain campus from Turkey where he was a U-18 doubles champion. Barrios is a transfer from Pima Community College where he was once ranked as No. 14 in the JUCO singles rankings and Black was a key contribtuor for Wichita State last season where played at both the No. 5 and 6 positions as a freshman. NAU will play a 23-match schedule in 2013 that features a pair of road matches against nationally-ranked squads at No. 36 Santa Clara, an NCAA Tennis Championship second round participant in 2012, and No. 61 New Mexico. A season-opening match at in-state Pac-12 rival Arizona and tilts at regional foes UNLV and Air Force also highlight the non-conference schedule. The Lumberjacks will host five matches this spring, all of which are Big Sky dates, including their final three matches of the season.
Women
A year ago, the Northern Arizona women’s tennis team faced the task of replacing four graduated starters. A year later, the Lumberjacks face no such task as they have the luxury of bringing back all six starters from their 10-13 squad that reached the Big Sky Championship semifinals in 2012. The Lumberjacks, picked second in the Big Sky preseason poll as selected by the conference coaches, seek their program-best eighth consecutive double-digit win campaign, a stretch that would break the tie set from the 1994-2000 seasons. Among the six returning starters, director of tennis Kim Bruno returns four All-Big Sky performers in seniors Ghizelene Doballah and Malia Wahinepio and sophomores Hannah Stone and Johanna Vang. The all-conference quartet served as the Lumberjacks’ top-four players in the singles lineup last season and will provide NAU with a steady force in the top-half of the lineup once again in 2013. Doballah and Stone, two of the four new starters last year, provided Bruno with a solid one-two punch at the top of the lineup. Doballah posted a 9-13 overall record exclusively at the No. 1 spot, while Stone recorded a 10-12 mark as the Lumberjacks primariy No. 2 player. Wahinepio garnered her third All-Big Sky honor of her career after an 11-11 season at No. 3 while Vang, like Stone, made a splash as a freshman at No. 4, posting an 11-10 record. The four players combined for an outstanding 27-5 record against Big Sky opponents, playing a big role in propelling the Lumberjacks to a second-place regular season finish in the conference. In addition to their singles success, Stone and Vang formed one of the conference’s most prolific doubles pairs as freshmen. They finished the 2012 season with a 13-6 doubles mark, 12-5 at No. 2 doubles, and posted the third highest win total of any duo in the Big Sky. In the fall, they upset the fifth-seeded doubles team en route to the round of 16 of the doubles main draw at the USTA/ITA Mountain Regional Championships. Seniors Nicole Perez and Alice Pacaut will comprise the last two spots in the Lumberjack lineup, returning to their roles as the No. 5 and 6 players. Pacaut, in her first season at NAU after transferring from Stephen F. Austin, tied Wahinepio and Vang for the team-lead in singles victories with 11, while Perez enters her fourth season as a mainstay in the NAU top-six. The Lumberjacks will also have a great deal of depth behind their six returning starters led by senior Alice Walker. Walker enters her final season as a valuable seventh player and has filled in when called upon. Last season, Walker picked up two Big Sky wins at No. 6. Bruno also welcomes in two newcomers in junior transfer Tatum Rochin and freshman Jordan Denesik. Rochin was a key member at Pima Community College over the last two years where she helped the squad to a pair of top-16 finishes at the national tournament. Denesik comes to NAU from Phoenix’s Barry Goldwater High where she was a four-year letterwinner and starter. A grueling season-opening weekend three matches in two days awaits the Lumberjacks as they play No. 29 Arizona, UC Davis and No. 37 Arizona State to kick start the 2013 season. A road match at 11-time defending Big Sky Champion Sacramento State, ranked No. 56 to start the season, is also on tap as are matches at regional rivals New Mexico, Air Force and Colorado. NAU has seven home dates on the schedule, the most it has had since 2006, with five of those being conference matches and two non-conference matches versus Valparaiso and Texas-Pan American. All together, the Lumberjacks will play 25 matches this spring, their most since 2002.
THIS IS LUMBERJACK COUNTRY
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