Feb. 22, 2002

LAS VEGAS - UNLV tennis senior Marianne Bakken made history playing at powerful Stanford last week and then became the Mountain West Conference Women's Player of the Week for her effort, the league announced Friday.

Bakken, from Rykkinn, Norway, won her match at No. 6 singles vs. Emilia Anderson 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in the Lady Rebels' 6-1 loss to the defending national champions. It marked the first time in eight all-time meetings between the schools that a Lady Rebel scored a point in singles.

Bakken also won a singles match in straight sets during Saturday's meeting at Santa Clara to improve to 9-4 this season. She also split her two doubles matches to raise her record to 9-5 with partner Gyorgyi Zsiros.

The honor was the first of Bakken's career but the second time in three weeks that a UNLV woman was chosen by the MWC.

The Lady Rebels (4-1), who host No. 67 Loyola Marymount Saturday beginning at 10 a.m., improved two spots to No. 54 in this week's poll.

UNLV tennis swept this week's awards as Rebel senior Thomas Schneiter won his first career POW nod as well.