April 29, 2005
SAN DIEGO, CALIF.- No. 44 UNLV defeated No. 48 New Mexico, 4-2, Friday afternoon in the semifinal round of the Mountain West Conference Women’s Tennis Championship held at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, Calif. UNLV captured the key doubles point and won three singles matches to advance to the championship match on Saturday.
The Lobos suffered tough losses at the No. 1 and 3 doubles positions, allowing UNLV to have the advantage going into singles competition. The lost doubles point proved to be hard for New Mexico to overcome heading into singles as UNLV collected wins at the No. 3 and 5 positions right from the start. No. 46 Maja Kovacek rallied for the Lobos at No. 1 singles with her second upset this year over UNLV’s No. 28 and MWC Freshman of the Year Elena Gantcheva. Kovacek won in straight sets to put the UNLV star out of the game.
The final points came down to the third set at No. 2 and 6 singles with UNLV only needing one of those matches to win. UNLV’s Claire Smith clinched the final victory at No. 6 singles as she defeated New Mexico’s senior Tiffany Robertson, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.
The Lobos travel back home with an overall record of 15-9, four all-MWC honorees and two MWC Players of the Year.
New Mexico will wait to see if it receives an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships. Selection announcements will take place on Wednesday, May 4 at 2:30 p.m. (MST) on ESPNews. The team brackets will also be posted on the NCAA web sites (www.NCAAsports.com and www.ncaa.org) shortly after the televised announcement, but no later than 4 p.m. (MST).
On Thursday, May 5, MWC Co-Players of the Year and UNM’s top two players Kovacek and Iva Gersic will find out if they will travel to Athens, Ga. for the NCAA singles and doubles championships. The individual selections will be posted on the NCAA web sites no later than 4 p.m. (MST) Thursday.
No. 44 UNLV 4, No. 48 New Mexico 2
Doubles
1. Gantcheva/Marin (UNLV) def. No. 8 Kovacek/Gersic (UNM) 8-6
2. Heidbrink/Robertson (UNM) def. Ortiz-Luis/Tempelfelde (UNLV) 8-5
3. Zsiros/Smith (UNLV) def. Quintal/Scott (UNM) 8-2
Singles
1. No. 46 Maja Kovacek (UNM) def. No. 28 Elena Gantcheva (UNLV) 6-1,6-3
2. No. 85 Iva Gersic (UNM) vs. Gyorgyi Zsiros (UNLV 3-6,7-5,2-2 DNF
3. Anne Claire Ortiz-Luis (UNLV) def. Michelle Heidbrink (UNM) 6-2,6-3
4. Nora Quintal (UNM) def. Sharon Marin (UNLV) 6-2,6-4
5. Cindy Treber (UNLV) def. Lucy Scott (UNM) 6-2,6-2
6. Claire Smith (UNLV) def. Tiffany Robertson (UNM) 5-7,6-4,6-2