April 27, 2007
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The 56th-ranked UNLV women's tennis team flexed its muscle in doubles once again on Friday to help upset No. 38 TCU 4-2 and advance to Saturday's Mountain West Conference Championships final.
The Lady Rebels, seeded third, improved to 19-6 overall while the second-seeded Horned Frogs fell to 17-10.
UNLV improved its all-time record in the MWC event to 15-5 under head coach Kevin Cory and will play in its fourth title match in the eight-year history of the league. The Lady Rebels won the tournament in 2000 and 2002 and lost in the 2005 final.
On a cool Friday morning at the Air Force Academy, UNLV won the doubles point for the 12th straight match and for the 23rd time in 25 outings this season. TCU started by easily winning the match on court two 8-2. However, Lady Rebels Alisa Razina and Claire Smith came through with an 8-6 victory at No. 3 over Andrea Morgado and Karine Ionesco to improve their doubles record to 20-4. Then, at the top spot, 20th-ranked Elena Gantcheva and Kristina Nedeltcheva continued their amazing run with an 8-4 victory over Anna Sydorska and Nina Munch-Soegaard that improved the duo's overall record to 23-2 and clinched the team point.
"We've really come to rely on getting out to a strong start," Cory said. "The doubles point was huge today and really set the tone for the entire match."
Moving to singles play, the Frogs quickly tied things when 85th-ranked Sydorska raced by Nedeltcheva 6-3, 6-1. At the top position, Gantcheva, ranked 66th, eased by No. 99 Munch-Soegaard 6-3, 6-2. The two-time MWC Player of the Year effectively rebounded from an upset loss on Thursday to improve her record to 18-6 in duals as a junior.
"Elena got back on track today and that really seemed to give the whole team a boost," Cory said.
Smith then gave her team a 3-1 lead by finishing off Ionesco 6-3, 6-4 on court six. It was the senior's 78th career singles victory, which moved her into a tie for fourth place on the school's all-time list.
TCU drew closer when No. 54 Ana Cetnik downed Nikol Dimitrova 6-4, 6-2 at the third spot while the remaining two courts both split sets to set up a dramatic finish. While Razina won her first set vs. Morgado, she lost the second and was tied 5-5 in the third when senior Linda Tempelfelde completed an impressive rally over Kewa Nichols on court four, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5, to clinch it for UNLV. Tempelfelde improved to 22-6 on the season and upped her career mark vs. MWC opponents to a stunning 18-3.
"It was great to see our seniors come out and do so well today," Cory said. "Claire Smith got big wins in both singles and doubles and Linda Tempelfelde came up huge when we needed her most. She has been clutch under pressure all season long and today was the biggest of all. It feels good to get this victory. A lot of matches like this have gone the other for us the last couple of years and the players were very deserving today."
The Lady Rebels will now face top-seeded and 31st-ranked BYU in tomorrow's final, which is set to begin at 9 a.m. PT. Live scoring will be available at www.themwc.com.
UNLV will attempt to break a nine-match losing streak to the Cougars, who have eliminated Cory's team in four consecutive MWC tournaments, including winning 4-2 in 2005's final. The Lady Rebels and Cougars also met in the championship round in 2000 but UNLV won that day 5-2 for the crown. UNLV has not defeated BYU in a dual match since March 22, 2002.
During this year's regular season, the teams met on April 14 in San Diego and BYU squeaked out a 4-3 win. Round Two on Saturday, however, brings with it an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament for the winner.
"We are playing the No. 1 seed in the tournament and we are looking forward to the rematch," Cory said. "We've lost a lot of matches to them lately that could have gone either way. I think that gives our team even more incentive on Saturday."
UNLV WOMEN'S TENNIS RESULTS2007 MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS#56 UNLV 4, #38 TCU 2At AFA Outdoor Tennis Facility, Colorado Springs
DOUBLES: (UNLV EARNS ONE TEAM POINT)1. #20 Gantcheva/Nedeltcheva (UNLV) def. Sydorska/Munch-Soegaard (TCU) 8-42. Cetnik/Nichols (TCU) def. Dimitrova/Tempelfelde (UNLV) 8-23. Smith/Razina (UNLV) def. Morgado/Ionesco (TCU) 8-6
SINGLES: (UNLV EARNS THREE TEAM POINTS)1. #66 Elena Gantcheva (UNLV) def. #99 Nina Munch-Soegaard (TCU) 6-3, 6-22. #85 Anna Sydorska (TCU) def. Kristina Nedeltcheva (UNLV) 6-3, 6-13. #54 Ana Cetnik (TCU) def. Nikol Dimitrova (UNLV) 6-4, 6-24. Linda Tempelfelde (UNLV) def. Kewa Nichols (TCU) 2-6, 6-3, 7-55. Alisa Razina (UNLV) vs. Andrea Morgado (TCU) DNF6. Claire Smith (UNLV) def. Karine Ionesco (TCU) 6-3, 6-4
