USTA Section: Southwest
Roster:
Zach Anderson - Senior
Deny Knezevic - Grad
Joseph O’Dell - Senior
Varayini Pankayatselvan - Sophomore
Justin Provo - Junior
Julia Romero - Junior
Sierra Smith - Junior
Ryan Tommasi - Senior
Erin Wosick - Junior
Teams Defeated: New Mexico, University of Texas-El Paso
USTA.com: When did you discover that you had the talent to win as a team?
We did really well at the first tournament of the year, even though we were missing some of our members. We lost to the top-seeded team by just one game. Then in the semifinals of Southwest Sectionals, we lost to the best team in the section, Arizona State, by four games.
USTA.com: How does your team unwind after a day of matches?
The team usually goes out to eat together. Then we play more tennis!
USTA.com: When you qualified, how did you celebrate?
All the team members ran out onto the court and hugged and tackled the mixed team. We saved eight match points in the mixed doubles and in the super tiebreak to beat New Mexico, 29-28.
USTA.com: Tell us a bit about how your school is unique?
Our school is unique because we are multinational; we speak six different languages across the team. We have a former varsity soccer player turned tennis player. We’re also very driven academically, with high professional aspirations: We have three aspiring doctors, a chemical engineer, three business people, a nurse and two restaurant, hotel and tourism managers.
USTA.com: How does your team fundraise? Do you serve your local community in a meaningful way?
We fundraised by hosting a pancake breakfast in the fall. Then in the spring, we hung flyers for a local business, had a pizza night in partnership with Papa John’s Pizza and held a car wash. We also take part in a campus-wide community service project once a semester.
USTA.com: If you were to list three specific things that need to happen in order to win a National Championship, they would be:
- Play the best tennis our team has ever played in their lives.
- Get lessons from Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic ...
- … and maybe have Bob and Mike Bryan play doubles.
USTA.com: How do you exhibit school spirit?
Some of our team members were mustaches like "Pistol Pete," our school mascot, and wear overly large foam cowboy hats.
USTA.com: Share with us a funny story about your team or team member(s).
At the Arizona State tournament, the team van had a blowout on a busy highway in Phoenix. The tire ended up getting changed but the spare went flat immediately upon driving on it. We ended up forcing the highway to close and were escorted by policemen down the highway, as we driving roughly 5 mph for a couple miles to a safe place. We finally got towed and ended up at the hotel only a couple of hours before the tournament started.
USTA.com Share with us an uplifting story about your team or team member(s).
One of our players was involved in a motorcycle accident a few years ago. He spent a week in Intensive Care and an entire month in a rehabilitation hospital, at which point he was told he wasn’t going to play tennis again due to the physical demand of a hard court. He went on to lead a team to a state championship and win an individual state title. That player now leads the NMSU club team into our first Tennis on Campus National Championship as our top player.