Jan. 30, 2005

LAS VEGAS - The rains left town but the winds were visiting the desert Sunday as the 46th-ranked UNLV women's tennis team finally finished a dual match, winning 7-0 over intrastate rival Nevada, Reno on a sunny but breezy day at the Fertitta Tennis Complex.

After two consecutive days of weather postponements, the Lady Rebels (1-0) notched their first win of the season and only lost one set in the process. The Wolf Pack fell to 1-1.

"After a tough weekend of weather conditions, it was nice to get through our first match," UNLV head coach Kevin Cory said. "The quality of play was a good indicator of how far our team has come from a year ago. It was a strong start and we are looking for good things this spring." UNLV began the morning by easily taking all three doubles matches for one team point.

In singles play, five Lady Rebels won in straight sets: No. 21-ranked Elena Gantcheva improved to 17-2 in her career with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Fiorela Velez at the top position, Gyorgyi Zsiros won at No. 2, Sharon Marin at No. 3, Cindy Treber at No. 5 and Claire Smith down at the sixth spot. Anne Claire Ortiz-Luis, however, needed a super-tiebreaker at No. 4 to win 6-3, 4-6, 1-0 (10-5) over Audrey Bardot.

UNLV now faces a long layoff as it next hosts the Lady Rebel Classic on Feb. 25-27.

UNLV WOMEN'S TENNIS RESULTS
#46 UNLV 7, NEVADA, RENO 0At Fertitta Tennis Complex, Las Vegas
DOUBLES: (UNLV WINS ONE TEAM POINT)1. Gantcheva/Marin (UNLV) def. Davenport/Velez (UNR) 8-12. Ortiz-Luis/Linda Tempelfelde (UNLV) def. Bouchlaka/Phan (UNR) 8-13. Zsiros/Smith (UNLV) def. Christine Tilley/Bardot (UNR) 8-2
SINGLES: (UNLV WINS SIX TEAM POINTS)1. #21 Elena Gantcheva (UNLV) def. Fiorella Velez (UNR) 6-1, 6-22. Gyorgyi Zsiros (UNLV) def. Bach-Lan Pham (UNR) 6-3, 6-23. Sharon Marin (UNLV) def. Kristen Davenport (UNR) 6-0, 6-24. Anne Claire Ortiz-Luis (UNLV) def. Audrey Bardot (UNR) 6-3, 4-6, 1-0 (10-5)5. Cindy Treber (UNLV) def. Myriam Bouchlaka (UNR) 6-1, 6-26. Claire Smith (UNLV) def. Nawchali DeSilva (UNR) 6-2, 6-0