March 28, 2009
SAN DIEGO - The 71st-ranked UNLV women's tennis team rebounded after losing doubles play to upset No. 32 TCU 4-3 Saturday on the campus of San Diego State.
The Lady Rebels improved to 11-6 on the year and, more importantly, moved to 2-0 in Mountain West Conference action. The Horned Frogs, who have been ranked as high as 21st this season, fell to 7-9 and 1-1.
UNLV will play the host Aztecs, ranked 29th, on Sunday morning to close out the key conference road-trip.
Powered by a close win at the top doubles spot behind the 23rd-ranked duo in the nation, TCU claimed a 1-0 lead on Saturday after sweeping three matches.
The Frogs then went ahead 2-0 after picking up a quick singles win on court five. Lady Rebel Nikol Dimitrova finally got her team on the board with 6-1, 6-4 victory over Katarina Tuohimaa at the second position. The win gave the senior from Sofia, Bulgaria, an impressive 18-7 career record in MWC regular-season matches. Adrienn Hidvegi would tie the match with a 7-5, 6-4 victory at No. 4 over Gaby Mastromarino that upped the sophomore's singles mark to a team-leading 19-5 overall. TCU took a hard-fought point on court two to regain the lead but in the only battle of ranked players, UNLV's No. 123 Kristina Nedeltcheva outdueled No. 84 Macall Harkins 7-6, 7-6 for the junior's fifth win over a ranked opponent in 2009.
All eyes moved to court six where Alisa Razina, a doubles standout moved into the lineup to replace injured starter Anna Maskaljun, split sets vs. Anna Sydorska but then fell behind 4-2 in the third. The junior from Riga, Latvia, would rally, however, to win the final four games and take the match 6-0, 2-6, 6-4 and hand 10th-year head coach Kevin Cory one of his biggest conference regular-season victories.
"This was the type of win we've been looking for all spring," Cory said. "The girls played their hearts out today and deserved the win against the preseason conference favorite - a very good TCU team. To win the match after losing doubles says a lot about the character of this team."
#71 UNLV 4, #32 TCU 3March 28, 2009 at Aztec Tennis Center, San Diego
Singles competition1. #123 Kristina Nedeltcheva (UNLV) def. #84 Macall Harkins (TCU) 7-6, 7-62. Nikol Dimitrova (UNLV) def. Katarina Tuohimaa (TCU) 6-1, 6-43. Kayla Duncan (TCU) def. Katy Williams (UNLV) 6-4, 7-54. Adrienn Hidvegi (UNLV) def. Gaby Mastromarino (TCU) 7-5, 6-45. Idunn Hertzberg (TCU) def. Rumyana Terzieva (UNLV) 6-2, 6-26. Alisa Razina (UNLV) def. Anna Sydorska (TCU) 6-0, 2-6, 6-4
Doubles competition1. #23 Sydorska/Harkins (TCU) def. Nedeltcheva/Williams (UNLV) 9-82. Tuohimaa/Duncan (TCU) def. Razina/Hidvegi (UNLV) 8-53. Mastromarino/Maria Babanova (TCU) def. Dimitrova/Terzieva (UNLV) 8-4
