May 15, 2010

Box Score

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The good news this weekend was that the UNLV women's tennis team earned its first NCAA tournament win in a dozen years. The bad news was that triumph set up a second round date with the nation's No. 2 team on it home courts. The result was a closer-than-it-sounds 4-0 victory by North Carolina at Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center on Saturday.

Still, the 36th-ranked Lady Rebels closed one of their most successful seasons ever with a record of 22-5 and are expected to move up in the final rankings after having upset No. 25 Virginia Commonwealth on Friday. The 22 victories were the most for the program since a 23-15 mark in 1990, which was two years before the NCAA limited the number of matches teams can play each season. Also, the final winning percentage of .815 ranks second all-time at the school behind only head coach Kevin Cory's 2002 squad, which finished 20-4 (.833).

The powerful Tar Heels, meanwhile, improved to 28-4 and advanced to the NCAA Round of 16 in Athens, Ga., next week. On Saturday, UNC took control early by winning the doubles point. At the third position, the team of Zoe De Bruycker and Jocelyn Ffriend dispatched Adrienn Hidvegi and Nives Pavlovic 8-3. In a matchup of ranked duos at the top of the lineup, 12th-ranked Sophie Grabinski and Sanaz Marand clinched it with an 8-5 win over No. 62 Kristina Nedeltcheva and Jana Albers. The remaining match, which was tied at 7, was then halted. Even with the loss, Nedeltcheva closed her collegiate doubles career with a school-record 98 wins against just 33 defeats, which meant she set another school record with an all-time winning percentage of .748.

Moving to singles play after the break, the Tar Heels got a surprisingly quick win on court four where Grabinski downed Hidvegi 6-1, 6-3. Gina Suarez-Malaguti then swept Anna Maskaljun 6-2, 6-3 at the fifth spot. No. 54 Katrina Tsang would end it with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Pavlovic on court two.

UNLV, however, was putting up a fight in the other three matches, all of which were halted. Junior Jana Albers, ranked 101st, was two games away from victory as she led Jelena Durisic 6-4, 4-3 at the third position; sophomore Rumyana Terzieva lost a tough first-set tiebreaker and was tied in the second set with Shinann Featherston, 7-6 (8-6), 1-1, at the sixth spot; and No. 45 Nedeltcheva was still alive against No. 23 Marand at the top court, trailing 6-4, 3-2.

"I feel we competed well and gave the No. 2 team a good run, especially coming off such a draining match yesterday," said Cory, who is completing his 11th season at UNLV. "Other than not winning the conference championship, this has been a tremendous year for us - one of the best since I've been here. We also just found out the girls posted a team GPA of 3.5 so they are definitely getting it done both on and off the courts."

The season is not quite over for one Lady Rebel as Nedeltcheva will play in the NCAA Singles Championship beginning May 26 at the University of Georgia. There she will attempt to become the first UNLV women's player to win a singles match at the annual event since Katarina Malec made it all the way to the semifinals in 2000.

2010 NCAA Women's Tennis ChampionshipsSecond Round#2 NORTH CAROLINA 4, #36 UNLV 0May 15, 2010, at Chapel Hill, NC(Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center)
Singles1. #21 Sanaz Marand (UNC) leading #45 Kristina Nedeltcheva (UNLV) 6-4, 3-2 DNF2. #54 Katrina Tsang (UNC) def. Nives Pavlovic (UNLV) 6-4, 6-23. #101 Jana Albers (UNLV) leading Jelena Durisic (UNC) 6-4, 4-3 DNF4. Sophie Grabinski (UNC) def. Adrienn Hidvegi (UNLV) 6-1, 6-35. Gina Suarez-Malaguti (UNC) def. Anna Maskaljun (UNLV) 6-2, 6-36. Shinann Featherston (UNC) leading Rumyana Terzieva (UNLV) 7-6 (6), 1-1 DNFOrder of finish:  4, 2, 5
Doubles1. #13 Marand/Grabinski (UNC) def. #62 Nedeltcheva/Albers (UNLV) 8-52. #31 Tsang/Featherston (UNC) tied with Maskaljun/Alisa Razina (UNLV) 7-7 DNF3. Zoe De Bruycker/Jocelyn Ffriend (UNC) def. Hidvegi/Pavlovic (UNLV) 8-3Order of finish:  1, 3