5/4/2000 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
May 4, 2000
LAS VEGAS - Senior Katarina Malec has become the second UNLV woman ever to qualify for both the NCAA singles and doubles championships as the national postseason fields were announced Thursday.
Malec earned her first career spot in the 64-player NCAA singles tournament after going 35-5 during the regular season, including 13-2 vs. ranked opponents. The native of Warsaw, Poland, is the highest ranked player in the Mountain West Conference at No. 29.
Also, Malec will team with sophomore Marianne Bakken in the 32-team doubles tournament. The duo, which is also the league's highest doubles team at No. 27, is 24-3 on the year, including 21-1 at in dual-match play at the No. 1 position.
Malec, who has won 15 consecutive singles matches and 14 straight in doubles, has not lost even as much as a set since February 25.
The only other UNLV woman to play both NCAA singles and doubles during her career was three-time All-American Marianne Vallin who played in the singles field four times (1994-97) and the doubles field three times (1994, '95, '97).
This year's NCAA individual tournaments are scheduled for May 22-26 at the Ralph-Straus Tennis Center on the campus of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.
The news was not so good, however, for the entire women's team. The Lady Rebels (15-9) were left out of the field despite winning their first-ever conference championship on April 29. The squad needed an at-large bid because of the one-year non-automatic qualifying status of the Mountain West.
New Mexico, which came in fourth in the MWC, and San Diego State, which was defeated by UNLV in last Friday's semifinals, did earn bids into the 64-team tournament.
On the men's side, the Rebels failed to earn a spot in the NCAA tournament for the first time in seven seasons. The UNLV men (8-14), who had played in a regional every year since the field was expanded in 1994, also had no individuals qualify for the first time since 1993.
San Diego State was the league's lone team to make this year's men's tournament.
