April 14, 2006

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The 51st-ranked UNLV women's tennis team lost another close match to a top-30 team on Friday, this time 5-2 to No. 20 TCU in a neutral-site meeting at the Lobo Tennis Club on the campus of the University of New Mexico.

The Lady Rebels fell to 12-6 overall and 5-2 in the Mountain West Conference. The Horned Frogs, who joined the MWC this season, won at least a share of the league title by improving to 7-0 and 16-6 overall.

TCU began the morning by winning three doubles matches for one team point.

In singles play, UNLV did prevail in the battle between the MWC's top two players as 16th-ranked Elena Gantcheva won her ninth straight, 6-4, 6-4 over 12th-ranked Nicole Leimbach. It marked Gantcheva's seventh win of the season over a top-25 opponent and improved her to 31-8 on the year, tying her for the sixth-most singles victories in a season by a Lady Rebel. Also, her 62 career wins in less than two years moves her into a tie with Marie Linusson (1995-98) for ninth place on the school's all-time wins list.

Also scoring for UNLV was Sharon Marin, who used a super-tiebreaker to earn her second upset of ranked opponent this season, 6-3, 6-7, 1-0 (11-9) over No. 83 Anna Sydorska at the third spot.

On the sixth court, Lady Rebel Linda Tempelfelde barely lost in her super-tiebreaker to Gloriann Lopez 4-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-8), to mark her first defeat in seven MWC matches this spring.

"This was a hard-fought match that could have gone either way, but TCU was just a little better than us today," UNLV head coach Kevin Cory said. "Now we need to bounce back and be ready for a tough test tomorrow."

The Lady Rebels close out their regular-season schedule on Saturday by taking on 48th-ranked host New Mexico beginning at 12 p.m. PT.

UNLV WOMEN'S TENNIS RESULTS#20 TCU 5, #51 UNLV 2At Lobo Tennis Club, Albuquerque
DOUBLES: (TCU EARNS ONE TEAM POINT)1. #26 Besovic/Cetnik (TCU) def.Gantcheva/Marin (UNLV) 8-32. Morgado/Sydorska (TCU) def.Dimitrova/Smith (UNLV) 8-43. Leimbach/Nichols (TCU) def.Mery Constanti/Treber (UNLV) 8-3
SINGLES: (TCU EARNS FOUR TEAM POINTS)1. #16 Elena Gantcheva (UNLV) def. #12 Nicole Leimbach (TCU) 6-4, 6-42. #33 Helena Besovic (TCU) def. Nikol Dimitrova (UNLV) 6-2, 7-53. Sharon Marin (UNLV) def. #83 Anna Sydorska (TCU) 6-3, 6-7, 1-0 (11-9)4. #119 Ana Cetnik (TCU) def. Cindy Treber (UNLV) 6-2, 6-15. Kewa Nichols (TCU) def. Claire Smith (UNLV) 7-6, 7-56. Gloriann Lopez (TCU) def. Linda Tempelfelde (UNLV) 4-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-8)