Lady Bronco tennis eyeing strong national finish

Karen Boehler
NMMI Sports Press
Bronco women’s tennis coach Dan O’Connell like to joke he’s “surrounded by beauty” when he poses for photos with his players. But even more than beauty, O’Connell is surrounded by talent, and while he hesitates just a bit in his praise for the team, he still thinks they can do very well this season.
“This is the best team since I’ve been here, and we could be very, very good,” he said. “Our No. 1, 2 and 3 girls did very well at nationals, and they’ve all returned.”
The three who saw national action are No. 1 Lorraine Banimataku, who played for four years under O’Connell at a regional training center in Fiji, and made it to the No. 1 singles consolation finals at nationals last year.
No. 2 is Thea Minor, another player O’Connell has known since before she reached junior high. From Saipan, an island in the South Pacific, the sophomore would come to Fiji for the Pacific Oceanic Championships. Along with Banimataku, she played doubles at last year’s national, making it to the quarter finals, and had the same finish in No. 2 singles.
Lorish Puluspene, from Papua New Guinea, also played at the Fiji training center where she knew O’Connell before coming to NMMI. She made it to the quarterfinals at No. 3 singles at last year’s nationals.
New to the Bronco squad is Francisca Nyarko, the No. 1-ranked women’s tennis player in Ghana. O’Connell has been working for two years to bring the African to the Institute, and she was supposed to arrive with Bronco Herman Abban last fall. But because of paperwork tie-ups, she didn’t arrive until late December — where she was surprised by the giant piles of snow on campus. Despite that late start — and cold introduction — O’Connell said the freshman has been “coping and doing very well.”
Sophomore Amanda Hawkins is another returner and another player from the South Pacific who the coach has watched grow up on the court. With the addition of Nyarko, she’ll get to move down a spot in the lineup from No. 4 to No. 5.
“She’s a good player,” O’Connell said. “She’s improved tremendously.”
Rounding out the seven-player squad are freshman Katarzyna Rosikon, who ran cross country for NMMI in the fall, and newcomer Jewel Ellis.
The tennis/cross country connection is one O’Connell appreciates. Banimataku, Minor, Puluspene and Hawkins all trained with the distance runners last fall.
“I thank (coach) Jan (Olesinski) for that,” O’Connell said. “That’s good teamwork and our girls benefit from cross country with the fitness and they’ll continue to do that at least two times a week next August and September. And Kasha has joined us. She’s a charming girl. All of them are very charming young ladies, and they all get together as a team, which makes it a lot of fun for me.”
Fun and competitive, as O’Connell notes the Lady Broncos have four really good singles players, which means two really good doubles teams. With Hawkins solid at No. 5, that means Rosikon and Ellis will work to hone their games at the No. 6 spot, while one or both will join with Hawkins at No. 3 doubles.
And here’s where O’Connell sounds cautiously optimistic.
“If things fall into place, we have a good chance to finish in the top 10 in the nation.” he said. “But things will have to fall into place because while everybody will have six good tennis players, we have five good ones. If the girls play as good as they did last year, we have a chance to reach the top 10.”
His hope, if all the pieces fall in place, is to match or even beat the No. 8 national ranking garnered by the Lady Broncos under coach Zeljka Vidic in 2011. But even if that doesn’t happen, O’Connell knows his players have both feet solidly planted toward the future.
“It’s just been a pleasure working with these girls,” he said. “It’ll be very sad for me to say goodbye to them, but I’m very happy because we’ve already secured full scholarships for Thea and Lorraine to go to Henderson State. Just like any coach, the goal is to have them do well here and develop as students and people and as tennis players, and move them forward in life. That’s happened already for Lorish and Thea. We hope it will happen for the others also.”