UNLV notebook: First-year coach has big plans for women’s soccer

Thursday, Sept. 14, 2000 | 10:25 a.m.

Dan Abdalla may be in his first season as UNLV's women's soccer coach, but that isn't preventing the former Rebels player from setting lofty goals for his team.

Although the program is in only its third season, Abdalla has his players thinking about a berth in the NCAA Tournament this winter.

"Our goals are to finish 13-5-2, we want to finish in the top three in our conference and we want to try to make it to the final in the conference tournament to give us a chance to get into the NCAAs," Abdalla said.

Just six matches into his inaugural season, the Rebels seem to be responding to Abdalla's expectations. UNLV is 4-2 heading into a pair of road matches this week at Boise State and Idaho State.

"We have started well, we have accomplished our goals in terms of where we want to be record-wise," Abdalla said. "We've had some good games, we've had some off games, but that's to be expected with the lack of depth and the lack of experience that we have."

The Rebels return nine starters and 15 letter winners from last year's team, which went 7-11-1, but Abdalla has only two seniors on the roster and only one that sees any playing time.

"We're scoring goals, but we've got to clean up what we're doing in terms of giving up easy goals (after we score)," Abdalla said. "We need to have someone step up on the field as a leader and when things start to get a little hectic, can settle us down and get our composure back."

Once that happens, Abdalla said, there is no telling what his team can achieve.

"We have played some good games and we have got some good wins on the road but we still need to get up to a different level and we're definitely not there yet," he said.

"We're close; I think we're just one good win away from really clicking and for the kids to say, 'Hey, that's the way it's supposed to be done.' When we get that one win, I think it's going to snowball from there."

The Rebels (1-2-1) will play Southern Methodist on Friday and Tulsa on Saturday.

Junior forward Jason Melendez has scored four goals in the past two games for the Rebels and has five goals and a team-leading 10 points in four games.

UNLV will face two more ranked opponents this weekend when the Rebels travel to Honolulu to take on No. 14 UC Santa Barbara tonight and No. 2 Hawaii on Saturday, Sept. 16. Both matches will be played at the University of Hawaii.

The Rebels already have played two ranked opponents, Florida and Wisconsin, during the first weekend of the season.

The men's duo of Nenad Zivkovic and Leslie Eisinga earned a ranking of 27th. Zivkovic, a senior from Belgrade, Serbia, was ranked as high as No. 1 in the nation in doubles two years ago. Eisinga, a sophomore from Helleveetsluis, Netherlands, is a transfer from the University of Oregon, where he earned a spot in the NCAA doubles championship tournament last season.

The women's doubles team of Marianne Bakken and Agnieszka Abram was ranked 38th. Bakken, a junior from Rykkinn, Norway, last season teamed with former Lady Rebel star Katarina Malec in advancing to the round of 16 at the NCAA tournament. Agnieszka is a freshman from Warsaw, Poland.