ABILENE - Senior
Joaquin Delgado received his first career Southland Conference Player of the Week citation following a weekend in which he powered back to defeat Sebastian Nothhaft of 15th-ranked Baylor, 3-6, 7-6 (9-7), 1-0 (10-5), at the No. 4 line.
"Joaquin and our team can build off this win for the rest of the season," said first year Director of Tennis and former Wildcat letter winner Juan Nunez. "That win is representative of who we are as a team, and I'm so proud of him and all he's accomplished."
With five starters lost from last year's team and another two student-athletes injured at the start of this season, Nunez said his team has adopted a 'blue-collar mentality.' He sees a lot of himself in this club and is enjoying coaching them.
"The scores don't always show it, but the Texas Tech coach (Todd Petty) came up to me and said, 'you're going to drive people crazy," said Nunez, "and I do think we're going to be a nightmare because we're going to scratch and fight for every point. Riley (Tran) gave Tech's No. 2 a run for his money (L, 6-3, 4-6, 10-5), and this is with him and everyone else playing up one or two positions. But this young team didn't shy from the challenge. The enjoyed the fight and adversity. They were up for it and having fun in this position."
Senior Ileana Mocciola received honorable mention status from the Southland Tuesday for helping the Wildcats capture the doubles point vs. TCU. She and sophomore Claire Fisher held off the No. 1 Horned Frog duo of Mercedes Aristegui and Isabel Pascual, 6-4, to clinch the dual's first point.
"The energy of the women's team was incredible this weekend," said Nunez, "and that's what 90 percent of doubles is, it's energy and intensity. We went into TCU and we took that first point. We proved we were ready to fight and compete. That's great for us."
The women's team also is without some of last year's starters, and as a result true freshman Maryjoe Crisologo played at No. 1 singles in all three matches vs. SMU and TCU. In her match Friday vs. the Horned Frogs she pushed 46th-ranked Tate Schroeder in both sets, falling 7-6 in the first, and leading 2-1 in the second but did not get the chance to finish.
"The overall feeling among the teams was we were thankful not to play each other," said Nunez. "Last fall we all played doubles on Friday and singles on Saturday, and so finally being able to travel, stay in hotels and riding together felt awesome."
The women's team will play host to UTSA this Saturday in Abilene, while the men are off until the weekend of Jan. 30-31 when they head to Norman, Okla. for duals vs. Oklahoma and Wichita State.
