March 10, 2011

Box Score

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (UNLVRebels.com) - The 48th-ranked UNLV men's tennis team opened its Mountain West Conference schedule with a closer-than-it-sounds 7-0 win over Air Force at the Cadets' indoor courts Thursday.

The Rebels improved to 12-6 while the Falcons fell to 8-3.

UNLV began the day by squeaking out the win in doubles. AFA won the match on court three but the Rebels pulled out two tiebreakers to emerge with the team point. Mehdi Bouras and Johannes Markel won 9-8 at No. 1 and Rene Ruegamer and Alex Bull survived by the same score at the second slot.

Moving to singles play, Bouras, ranked 66th in the nation, got by Lance Wilhelm 6-4, 6-4 at the top of the lineup. Markel fought off a match point in the second set to down Lucas Marin-Salcedo 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 at No. 2; Tamas Batyi took his three-setter over Andy Jackson, 6-2, 6-7, 6-4, at No. 3; Ruegamer swept Alex Grubbs 6-2, 6-4 at No. 5; Bull downed Taylor Soster 7-6, 6-2 at No. 5; and Kasper Konyves defeated Steven Young 7-5, 6-2 on court six.

"I have a tremendous amount of respect for the Air Force team, coaches and the Academy," UNLV head coach Owen Hambrook said. "They are a vastly improved team and gave us all we could handle today."

Next up, the Rebels will head to New Mexico for their final non-conference match of the regular season, taking on Texas Tech in Albuquerque on Saturday.

Men's Tennis Match Results#48 UNLV 4, AIR FORCE 1March 10, 2011 at Colorado Springs, CO(AFA Indoor Courts)
Singles1. #66 Mehdi Bouras (UNLV) def. Lance Wilhelm (AFA) 6-4, 6-42. Johannes Markel (UNLV) def. Lucas Marin-Salcedo (AFA) 3-6, 7-6, 6-43. Tamas Batyi (UNLV) def. Andy Jackson (AFA) 6-2, 6-7, 6-44. Rene Ruegamer (UNLV) def. Alex Grubbs (AFA) 6-2, 6-45. Alex Bull (UNLV) def. Taylor Soster (AFA) 7-6, 6-26. Kasper Konyves (UNLV) def. Steven Young (AFA) 7-5, 6-2Order of Finish: 1, 4, 3, 2, 5, 6
Doubles1. Bouras/Markel (UNLV) def. Wilhelm/Jackson (AFA) 9-8 (3)2. Ruegamer/Bull (UNLV) def. Soster/Marin-Salcedo (AFA) 9-8 (3)3. Grubbs/Ali Rizvi (AFA) def. Bernard Schoeman/Konyves (UNLV) 8-6Order of Finish: 3, 1, 2