April 14, 2007
SAN DIEGO - The 60th-ranked UNLV women's tennis team was just two points away from upsetting No. 27 BYU but the Cougars rallied and won their ninth straight over the Lady Rebels, 4-3, at the Aztec Tennis Center on the campus of San Diego State.
The Lady Rebels, who with a victory would have moved into a first-place tie with TCU and SDSU, instead fell to 16-6 overall and 5-2 in the Mountain West Conference while the Cougars improved to 18-6 and 7-1.
UNLV began the morning by taking two of three doubles matches for one team point. Head coach Kevin Cory's crew has now won the doubles point in nine consecutive outings and 20 times in 22 matches this season. The 16th-ranked team of Elena Gantcheva and Kristina Nedeltcheva continued to build their case for being the best duo in school history as their 8-3 win over No. 49 Jenny Miccoli and Anastasia Surkova improved their record to 20-2.
BYU took the match on court two but UNLV's Alisa Razina and Claire Smith combined for an 8-6 victory at the third position to raise their record to 17-4 and help give their team the lead.
However, Surkova, ranked 118th in singles, got her revenge later in the day by sweeping No. 57 Gantcheva 7-6, 6-1 at the top spot. The upset broke Gantcheva's eight-match winning streak overall and an incredible 16-match streak vs. MWC opponents in dual matches. In fact, the last time the junior All-American had lost during conference play was April 29, 2005.
BYU also picked up straight-set victories on courts five and six to take a 3-1 lead before UNLV regained control of the match. Senior Linda Tempelfelde got by Chie Hayasaka at No. 4 by the score of 7-5, 6-4 to move to 20-5 in singles overall. Then, sophomore Nikol Dimitrova tied things with a 6-3, 6-3 victory at No. 3 over Kristina Doerr.
With all eyes on court two, Nedeltcheva, a freshman, dropped the first set to senior Lauren Jones but won the second and was ahead 5-4 in games and 30-15 in points in the deciding stanza. Jones, however, came back to win that game and the next two to give BYU the victory with a 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 final.
The Lady Rebels will look to rebound when they close out the regular-season by facing 56th-ranked San Diego State on Sunday beginning at noon.
UNLV WOMEN'S TENNIS RESULTS#27 BYU 4, #60 UNLV 3At Aztec Tennis Center, San Diego
DOUBLES: (UNLV EARNS ONE TEAM POINT)
1. #16 Gantcheva/Nedeltcheva (UNLV) def. #49 Jenny Miccoli/Surkova (BYU) 8-3
2. Jones/Chang (BYU) def. Dimitrova/Tempelfelde (UNLV) 8-3
3. Smith/Razina (UNLV) def. Holden/Doerr (BYU) 8-6
SINGLES: (BYU EARNS FOUR TEAM POINTS)
1. #118 Anastasia Surkova (BYU) def. #57 Elena Gantcheva (UNLV) 7-6, 6-1
2. Lauren Jones (BYU) def. Kristina Nedeltcheva (UNLV) 6-2, 3-6, 7-5
3. Nikol Dimitrova (UNLV) def. Kristina Doerr (BYU) 6-3, 6-3
4. Linda Tempelfelde (UNLV) def. Chie Hayasaka (BYU) 7-5, 6-4
5. Sofia Holden (BYU) def. Alisa Razina (UNLV) 6-3, 6-2
6. Dolly Chang (BYU) def. Claire Smith (UNLV) 6-4, 6-3
