April 25, 2002

PROVO, Utah - The 19th-ranked UNLV women's tennis team got revenge for being on the wrong end of a first-round upset in last year's Mountain West Conference championship by shutting out Colorado State 4-0 to advance at the BYU Tennis Center Thursday.

The second-seeded Lady Rebels improved to 18-3 overall and 7-1 in the league. The seventh-seeded Rams fell to 6-17 and 1-7. CSU downed UNLV 4-2 in the first round of last year's event, which was held in Fort Collins.

The Lady Rebels opened the day by taking the two completed doubles matches for one team point. Winning were the teams of Paulina Janus and Agnieszka Abram at No. 1 and Tracie Chong and Leentjie Oosthuizen at No. 3.

In singles play, UNLV got three straight-set wins to end it. Janus, ranked 91st, swept Sanja Hansson 6-2, 6-3 at the top spot. Gyorgyi Zsiros, ranked 94th, cruised past Amanda Bartz 6-0, 6-1 at No. 2, and Oosthuizen won 6-2, 6-3 over Dasha Zhurin on the fifth court to clinch it.

"I feel good about the first day," UNLV head coach Kevin Cory said. "It was a nice way to start things out here. To have our full team healthy makes a huge difference." UNLV will face New Mexico on Friday beginning at 9 a.m. PDT. The 55th-ranked Lobos defeated Air Force 4-1 in the first round. In their regular-season meeting, the Lady Rebels defeated UNM 4-3 on April 7 in a match played in Colorado Springs.

"We have a big challenge Friday in facing New Mexico," Cory said. "But we feel good about the position we are in."

Elsewhere, top-seeded San Diego State shut out Wyoming and BYU whitewashed Utah. The Aztecs and Cougars will face off in Friday's other semifinal.

2002 MWC WOMEN'S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP
(#19) UNLV 4, COLORADO STATE 0
First Round
At BYU Tennis Center, Provo, Utah
SINGLES-(UNLV EARNS THREE TEAM POINTS)1. (91) Paulina Janus (UNLV) def. Sanja Hansson (CSU)   6-2, 6-32. (94) Gyorgyi Zsiros (UNLV) def. Amanda Bartz (CSU)  6-0, 6-13. Agnieszka Abram (UNLV) vs. Catherine Sullivan (CSU)    Did not finish4. Tracie Chong (UNLV) vs. Bobbe Vasos (CSU)     Did not finish5. Leentjie Oosthuizen (UNLV) def. Dasha Zhurin (CSU) 6-2, 6-36. Marianne Bakken (UNLV) vs. Alexandra Paganetti (CSU)   Did not finish
DOUBLES-(UNLV EARNS ONE TEAM POINT)1. Janus/Abram (UNLV) def. Hansson/Sullivan (CSU)   8-42. Bakken/Zsiros (UNLV) vs. Bartz/Vasos (CSU)       Did not finish3. Chong/Oosthuizen (UNLV) def. Paganetti/Zhurin (CSU)  8-2