December 18, 1998
LAS VEGAS - UNLV women's tennis coach Ola Malmqvist has resigned to join the United States Tennis Association, the school announced Friday.
Malmqvist who was in his seventh season at UNLV, will become a national coach for women's tour professionals.
"We would love to keep him, but Ola has a great opportunity to continue expanding his career at the USTA," said Lisa Kelleher, UNLV assistant athletics director and senior woman administrator. "Ola has done everything right during his time here. He has formed a strong program for the players both as students and athletes and raised the team to new heights." Malmqvist departs with a career record of 83-59 in six seasons.
"It's a great honor to be asked to be a national coach for the United States and I am looking forward to the challenge," said Malmqvist, who plans to continue living in Las Vegas while training a group of women that will compete throughout the world. "I have enjoyed my time at UNLV. I am really going to miss the team. We're definitely on the map now in women's tennis."
Malmqvist, a native of Sweden and a 1983 national champion at the University of Georgia, came to Las Vegas and turned a nondescript tennis program into a western power along with men's head coach Larry Easley.
The 1997 ITA Regional Coach of the Year and 1996 Big West Conference Coach of the Year, Malmqvist was a top recruiter and teacher who trained the most decorated player in school history - three-time All-American Marianne Vallin.
Previous to Malmqvist's hiring, the Lady Rebels never had reached the NCAA postseason as a team and had only one player enter the national individual tournament. In the past six years, UNLV players earned eight berths into NCAA singles and doubles play and qualified for two-consecutive NCAA regional bids as a team. The women's team, which had never previously been ranked, climbed as high as No. 14 in 1997. Malmqvist's players also produced a singles ranking as high as fourth in 1997 and a doubles ranking as high as fourth just last season.
Other honors earned by Malmqvist's players include national rookie of the year, regional senior of the year, two-time UNLV Sportswoman of the Year, three-time conference player of the year and 22 spots on all-conference teams for singles and doubles. Last season's squad reached the WAC championship for the first time and closed out the year ranked 28th. Malmqvist also had a big part in recruiting and developing some of the men's program's top players such as three-time All-American Roger Pettersson from Sweden and 1997 NCAA champions Luke Smith and Tim Blenkiron from Australia.
However, even more impressive may be UNLV's academic performance under Malmqvist. The women's team produced six ITA Scholar-Athlete All-Americans and twice earned ITA Academic All-American recognition as a team, including posting the nation's highest grade point average for women's programs with a 3.6 in 1997. Also, Malmqvist's teams earned the highest GPA among UNLV athletic programs every semester from fall 1994 through spring 1998.
