Rebel tandem hoping to bring titles to UNLV

Friday, May 19, 2000 | 9:51 a.m.

Katarina Malec and Marianne Bakken will attempt to make recent UNLV tennis history repeat itself when they travel to Southern California to participate in the NCAA Women's Tennis Championships.

It was only three years ago that unheralded Rebels tennis players Luke Smith and Tim Blenkiron launched their unexpected assault on the NCAA Championships in Southern California. Although unseeded going into the tournament, Smith emerged with the singles championship and Smith and Blenkiron teamed to win the doubles title.

When the NCAA Women's Tennis Championships begin on Monday on the campus of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Malec will be unseeded in singles and Malec and Bakken unseeded in the doubles competition.

"I think there are certainly three or four doubles teams and probably seven or eight singles players that will be very tough to beat," UNLV women's head coach Kevin Cory said. "Outside of that, I think that everybody is beatable -- as we proved when we played San Diego; even the No. 1 team in the country is beatable.

"Our expectations are to go out and play the way we play best, which is being aggressive and taking chances and we'll see what happens."

Despite winning the inaugural Mountain West Conference tournament last month, UNLV was not extended a berth in an NCAA regional, although Malec and Bakken were extended individual invitations based on their play throughout the regular season.

Malec, a senior, is 35-5 in singles play this season and is ranked 29th in the nation; only the top 16 players are seeded in the NCAA Championships. Malec has won 15 consecutive singles matches and has not lost a match since Feb. 25.

In doubles, Malec and Bakken, a sophomore, have been equally dominant, posting a 24-3 mark with 14 straight victories. Malec and Bakken are the 27th-ranked doubles team in the country.

"I just want to go there and have fun and enjoy being in the NCAA tournament," Malec said. "But I don't want to go there and just show up -- I want to go and compete and do my best.

"Being my last tournament, I want to give everything I have. I hope to do well but if not, I think I did, already, a lot for my senior year."

Although she will be competing in both the singles and doubles portions of the tournament, Malec said she is not worried about her stamina -- or her nerves.

"The more I play, the further in the tournament I go, I always play better because I have more confidence," Malec, a native of Warsaw, Poland, said.

"I had more pressure before because I really wanted to go to this tournament and I had pressure because I knew if I would lose a match, it could be crucial to going to NCAAs. Now, the pressure is off and I'm not the favorite or anything; every match I win will be a success for me."

Bakken, who said she would cheer from the sidelines when her doubles partner is playing singles, said she and Malec have something to prove after the NCAA selection committee snubbed UNLV.

"I want to go out there and prove that we actually can do something and that we should have been in the regional, team-wise," Bakken said. "I think we have a good chance of doing well. It's a tournament that we can lose in the first round or we can go all the way. We have proven that we can beat the best team in the country (because) we've beaten the number-one team. I think we have good chances."

Malec and Bakken already own a victory over the No. 1-ranked doubles team in the country, Zuzana Lesenarova and Katarina Valkyova, 9-8 (7-4) on April 2.

Bakken, from Rykkin, Norway, said she isn't worried about Malec wearing herself out playing both singles and doubles -- even though Malec could play two singles matches before her doubles match should the players survive Monday's opening round.

"I'm not worried about it at all," Bakken said. "Katarina will put her heart into it, no matter what she's doing -- singles or doubles -- but of course it's going to be a factor if she's going to play two singles matches before a doubles match.

"But it's going to be the same for many other players down there, too."

Whatever happens in Malibu, Cory said he already considers the 2000 season an overwhelming success for UNLV.

"I'm very proud of what our players have accomplished this year ... and anything from this point on is a bonus," the first-year coach said. "We were all disappointed not to get into the NCAAs as a team, but this is an opportunity for us to represent the university and the city of Las Vegas, so we're looking forward to it."

The NCAA Championships run Monday through Friday at the Ralph-Straus Tennis Center on the campus of Pepperdine University.