May 8, 2009
LAS VEGAS - When college tennis standout Katy Williams was looking for a new school to play for a couple of years ago, the all-conference performer wanted to end up somewhere she could continue her winning ways.
Mission accomplished.
The former Long Beach State transfer ultimately decided to spend her final two seasons at UNLV and it turned into a win-win (and win) situation for both her and the Lady Rebels.
Named All-Big West in both singles and doubles both of her seasons playing in the top two of the lineup for the highly ranked 49ers, Williams moved her net show to Las Vegas in time for the fall semester of 2007.
"When I left (LBSU), I wanted to go somewhere where hopefully my team would be winning - just like we've ended up doing here," says the native of Stevenage, England. "I had never been to Las Vegas but I talked to (former Lady Rebel and fellow Brit) Claire Smith, who I knew from home, about UNLV, and I really liked Kevin's enthusiasm about the program."
"Kevin" would be Lady Rebel head coach Kevin Cory, who has built a budding dynasty in the desert during his decade on campus, producing a combined five league titles. And he says it's no coincidence that his team won two of those championships after Williams joined the fold.
"Katy has been a really big part of our success the past two seasons and she's helped lead this team both on the court and in the classroom," he says of a player that is a candidate for Academic All-America honors. "She's a great example of what a student-athlete should be. You would have to talk about her as one of the top transfer players in the history of the program."
Williams, who ranked as high as 118th in singles and 53rd in doubles during her career, settled into the No. 3 spot in the UNLV lineup and produced two 20-win seasons, including 25-12 as a senior en route to All-MWC honors. In doubles, she joined Kristina Nedeltcheva this year to form the team's top duo and posted a 25-7 mark that has already tied for the fourth most wins in UNLV single-season history.
Also a two-time league champ at Long Beach, she brought a winning vibe to her new program that helped UNLV win Mountain West crowns in back-to-back seasons - a tournament title in 2008 and an impressive 8-0 regular-season championship this spring - after the team had gone four years without a first-place finish.
That success not only helped move the Lady Rebels back into the top echelon of the MWC, but also gave Williams the rare distinction of being a four-time conference champion despite playing at two different schools.
"I didn't expect to win a championship every year in college but it's been a lot of fun doing it," she says. "It was a great feeling this year to go undefeated in the conference as a senior. We didn't have the strongest start so no one on the team was talking about winning every match. Then we had that great weekend in San Diego (beating New Mexico, TCU and San Diego State in successive days), which showed us that we could play with anybody."
A communications major, Williams was set to walk at spring commencement ceremonies on May 9 but instead will be running in Los Angeles, facing Arizona State in the first round of the NCAA Championships. The 44th-ranked Lady Rebels used their 20-7 record, which included a 13-match winning streak, to earn an at-large bid to the big event for the eighth time in history.
Williams and her teammates will face the Pac-10 power starting at 9 a.m. PT on Saturday on the campus of UCLA. And while she'll miss receiving her symbolic diploma, the former transfer will graduate from college with honors - as a four-time champion.
