ORO VALLEY, Ariz. (UNLVRebels.com) – The UNLV women's tennis team will play in the final of the Mountain West Championship for the fifth straight time after shutting out UNR 4-0 in Friday's semifinal at the El Conquistador Tennis Center outside of Tucson.
In what was the first-ever MW tournament meeting between the in-state rivals, the fourth-seeded Rebels improved to 19-5 overall while the eighth-seeded Wolf Pack closed their season at 10-11.
UNLV took charge by easily taking two doubles matches to secure a 1-0 lead.
Moving to singles,
Zita Kovacs downed Marian Campino, 6-2, 6-1 on court two and
Molly Helgesson swept Anastasia Luneva, 6-1, 6-2, at the top of the lineup for a quick 3-0 lead. Half of the singles matches went to three sets but
Cindy Hu ended things with a 3-6, 6-0, 6-1 victory over Cristina Moll Alles.
NET NOTES: The win over the Pack clinched three points for the Rebels in the Silver State Series presented by IBEW and Nevada Donor Network … UNLV shut out its opponent for the 10th time this season … The Rebels have now reached the finals of the conference postseason event for the 12th time in the league's 23 years of existence, winning it all six times … This is the first MW tournament since 2019 because of the COVID pandemic.
QUOTABLE: "Today was another battle. We started out really strong in doubles and after a slow start in singles at a few spots, we finished the match strong, which was great to see."
-UNLV Head Coach Kevin Cory
NEXT FOR THE REBELS: UNLV will face third-seeded San Diego State in the final, which starts at 11 a.m. PT. The Aztecs downed second-seeded CSU 4-1 in Friday's late semifinal. Live video and scoring is available by visiting
Championship Central at TheMW.com.
2022 MOUNTAIN WEST WOMEN'S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP - SEMIFINALS
(4) UNLV 4, (8) UNR 0
April 29, 2022, at Oro Valley, AZ
(El Conquistador Tennis Center)
Singles competition
1.
Molly Helgesson (UNLV) def. Luneva, Anastasia (UNR) 6-1, 6-2
2.
Zita Kovacs (UNLV) def. Campino, Mariana (UNR) 6-2, 6-1
3.
Izumi Asano (UNLV) vs. Genkova, Milka (UNR) 7-6 (2), 4-3, unfinished
4.
Cindy Hu (UNLV) def. Moll Alles, Cristina (UNR) 3-6, 6-0, 6-1
5.
Salsa Aher (UNLV) vs. Turulja, Selina (UNR) 4-6, 6-3, 4-1, unfinished
6. CoCo Zhao (UNLV) vs. Charalampidi, G. (UNR) 5-7, 6-0, 4-3 unfinished
Doubles competition
1.
Molly Helgesson/
Zita Kovacs (UNLV) def. Del Barrio, Carla/Luneva, Anastasia (UNR) 6-1
2.
Izumi Asano/
Cindy Hu (UNLV) vs. Campino, Mariana/Turulja, Selina (UNR) 3-3, unfinished
3. CoCo Zhao/
Salsa Aher (UNLV) def. Charalampidi, Gabriella/Genkova, Milka (UNR) 6-0
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1); Singles (2,1,4)
