April 14, 2010
LAS VEGAS - UNLV junior Jana Albers has been named the Mountain West Conference Women's Tennis Player of the Week for the first time in her career, the league announced Wednesday. She shared the honor with San Diego State's Julia Trunk.
A native of Papenburg, Germany, Albers went 4-0 to help 36th-ranked UNLV record back-to-back victories over New Mexico and TCU last weekend. Against the Lobos on Friday, Albers, the 114th-ranked player in the nation, posted a straight-set win over Kristina Eggleston (6-2, 6-3) at No. 2 singles after picking up a win in doubles earlier in the day.
On Saturday vs. No. 73 TCU, the former Nebraska transfer recorded two significant victories to help UNLV finish the regular season with a 16-0 home record. She first teamed with Kristina Nedeltcheva in doubles to upset 40th-ranked Kayla Duncan and Katarina Tuohimaa, 8-5, to give her team a 1-0 lead. She then upset Duncan, ranked 90th in singles, 6-2, 6-2, to help UNLV get by the Horned Frogs 4-3.
Next up, the Lady Rebels (17-3 overall/4-1 MWC) travel to San Diego for three neutral-site conference matches beginning with Colorado State on Friday. UNLV will then host the MWC tournament from April 28-May 1.
This week's MWC men's award was won by UNLV's Luca Barlocchi, marking the first time that a player from both the Rebels' men's and women's team won the honor in the same week since Feb. 6, 2008, when Elliot Wronski and Elena Gantcheva were chosen.
