The University of Northern Iowa women's tennis team will be hosting its first dual meet of the season Sat., Feb. 2 against UMKC at the Black Hawk Tennis Club in Waterloo. The Panthers will also take the court at home on Sunday against Western Illinois.

 

SCOUTING THIS WEEKEND'S OPPONENTS

• The Panthers own a 5-0 all-time record against UMKC, and won last year's match against UMKC 7-0. The Kangaroos will start their season on Friday, Feb. 1 at Missouri.

• Western Illinois owns an 18-10 all-time record against the Panthers. UNI rolled past the Westerwinds 7-0 last year. Western Illinois will come into Cedar Falls with a 1-0 record after winning its season opener on Jan. 19 against DePaul 7-0. "Western Illinois is going to be a lot better this year, and we are going to have to play our best," coach Kirtane said.

 

PANTHER WOES

• Freshman Diana Mendez was the lone Panther to pick up a victory last week at in the Panthers spring season opener at the Hawkeye Invitational in Iowa City, Iowa. Mendez beat Iowa's Kayla Berry 6-4, (4-6), 10-6. UNI lost every match on the first day of competition against Iowa in doubles play and Iowa State in singles. The Panthers lost six out of seven singles matches to Iowa on the final day of competition and all three doubles matches against Iowa State.

 

KIRTANE ADDS FIRST PLAYER TO 2008-2009 ROSTER

• Talia Jang-Stewart (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) signed a National Letter-

of-Intent to play tennis for the Panthers in the 2008-2009 season. She is a top junior Canadian tennis player and will be able to contribute

to the Panthers' squad next season.

 

GONZALEZ-GARRIDO JOINS PANTHERS

• Laia Gonzalez-Garrido (Vinaros, Spain) is coach Sachin Kirtane's newest addition to the Panther squad for the spring season. Gonzalez-Garrido has been ranked as high as No. 120 in the open rankings in Spain. She has a lot of experience playing tournaments all over Europe and is one of the top players in Spain. She will help make the Panther line-up a lot deeper and stronger, Kirtane said.

 

CHASING HISTORY

• Meghana Paritala won her 75th career singles match at the MVC In­dividual Championships on Sept. 30. Paritala is currently fourth on the all-time career wins list, and is only nine wins behind the Panthers all-time leader, Nancy Land. Teammate Carolina Hannes sits in fifth place on the all-time list with 70 career victories.

 

• Paritala and Hannes hold the second and seventh spots respectively on the Panthers career winning percentage in singles play. Paritala has won 70.7 percent of her matches and Hannes has been victorious in 66.6 percent of her matches. Robin Ross is the Panthers' all-time leader, win­ning 73.5 percent of her matches.

 

SECONDS ALL AROUND

• Two UNI tennis players finished second at the Missouri Valley Indi­vidual Championships in Omaha, Neb., on Sept. 30. Carolina Hannes was runner-up in No. 5 singles, losing to Marie Caujolle of Indiana State 0-6, 6-3, 6-3. Freshman Diana Mendez lost in the No. 6 finals to Tanja Hrovatic of Illinois State 6-2, 6-2.

 

• The Panthers also brought home two runner-up finishes in doubles play at the MVC Individual Championships. The duo of Sampada Kanade and Taynara Moraes lost in No. 1 doubles play to Indiana State's Jennifer Migan and Joanne Schickerling, 8-3. The other Panther team to finish second was Meghana Paritala and Diana Mendez in No. 3 doubles play. Carolyne Parent and Tanja Hrovatic beat the Panther squad, 8-3.

PANTHERS DOUBLE TEAM WINS AT MINNESOTA

• The doubles team of Diana Mendez and Ashton Schwerin won the Star Doubles Flight at the Minnesota Invitational on Sept. 16. The freshman duo beat Nellie Bloomberg and Jenny Sondreal of South Dakota State, 8-2.

 

MORAES FINISHES FOURTH AT MINNESOTA

• Junior Taynara Moraes was the Panthers' top singles finisher at the Minnesota Invitational, placing fourth in the Gold Singles Flight. Moraes lost her third-place match to Jackie Sperling of Minnesota 6-4, 6-3.

HEAD COACH Sachin Kirtane

Sachin Kirtane begins his sixth season as the University of Northern Iowa's women's tennis coach. In five sea­sons at the helm, Kirtane has turned the program around, going 17-6 last season and moving his overall record to 60-40 as the Panther head coach. Kirtane ranks second in both career wins (60) and all-time winning percentage (.600). Kirtane needs 23 victories to catch all-time wins leader Pete Mazula. Mazula also holds the all-time winning percentage mark (.664).

 

Kirtane has guided the Panthers to three consecutive winning seasons, including a 19-4 record in the 2005 season. During the 2005 campaign, Kirtane led the Panthers to their first Missouri Valley Conference champi­onship match only to lose regular season champion Illinois State.

In 2007, Kirtane led the Panthers to a second place finish in the Missouri Valley Conference with a 6-2 league record. Kirtane holds a 16-10 confer­ence mark the past three seasons after 1-8 records in his first two seasons.

 

His second season saw the team achieve the goal he had set forth of sim­ply to, "get better." The team, while boasting only one senior, went 7-12 overall.

 

From 1998-2002, Kirtane was the assistant men's and women's ten­nis coach at Valdosta State University. He helped lead both teams to the finals of the Gulf South Conference Championships in 1998-99. In 2000, the men's team was ranked fourth in the nation. The women's team won the conference title and reached the semi-finals of the NCAA Division II Championship in Pensacola, Fla. In 2001, the men's team was ranked sec­ond in the nation and won its second consecutive conference title.

 

Kirtane graduated from VSU in 1998 with a marketing degree. In 2000, he earned his master's from VSU in business administration.

Kirtane was a scholarship athlete for VSU's tennis team from 1994-98. He was awarded all-conference and all-America honors. He also was a mem­ber of the Student Advisory Committee. He participated in the Division II National Tournament and won the Gulf South Conference championship in 1995. He was named the team's Most Valuable Player in 1996. Kirtane was a member of the team that finished fourth in the national tournament in 1994-95. In 1992-93, he played professionally. He also played in the ITF International Junior Ranking Tournaments in 1990-91.