UNLV men host MWC tennis meet; women go to Provo

Thursday, April 25, 2002 | 9:57 a.m.

The 53rd-ranked UNLV men's tennis team hosts a conference tournament for the first time in the school's history when the Mountain West Conference Championship kicks off today.

An automatic bid to the 64-team NCAA championship field is on the line for the six league teams. Regular-season co-champion San Diego State (15-8 overall and 4-1 in MWC), whose only league loss came at the hands of the Rebels, is the top seed. Co-champ BYU (13-8/4-1) is the No. 2 seed, New Mexico (15-8/3-2) is third, Utah (14-10/2-3) is fourth, UNLV (9-11/2-3) is fifth and Air Force (14-9/0-5) is seeded sixth.

The Rebels will look to snap a three-match losing streak when they take on unranked Utah beginning at 2 p.m. The Utes downed UNLV 5-2 on April 13 to close out the regular season. No. 63 UNM will face Air Force in the first round's other action while No. 28 SDSU and No. 70 BYU enjoy byes.

The semifinals are Friday at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. while on Saturday, the third-place match begins at 10 a.m. with the championship slated for 2 p.m.

All matches are at the Fertitta Tennis Complex on campus. Tickets are $4 ($2 for 18 and under) per session or $10/$5 for an all-session pass.

UNLV, which won its only three league championships in 1994-96 as part of the Big West Conference, lost in the final of last year's event to BYU.

The Lady Rebels led the conference in overall wins with a school-record-tying 17-3 regular-season mark and finished second with a 6-1 MWC record. San Diego State was the only team to finish 7-0 in league play and earned the top seed.

UNLV, which won the inaugural tournament two years ago on its home court, will open play vs. seven seed Colorado State (6-16/1-6) at 9 a.m. PDT. The Lady Rebels were upset by the Rams a year ago in the first round en route to a fifth-place finish.

Also in the first round, the Aztecs (16-7/7-0) will face eight seed Wyoming (5-13/1-6), third seed New Mexico (12-9/5-2) takes on sixth-seeded Air Force (11-11/2-5) and four seed BYU (9-12/4-3) will challenge fifth-seeded Utah (9-13/2-5).

The semifinals will be Friday while the fifth-place match and championship are slated for Saturday at the BYU Tennis Complex.

UNLV is led by two of the league's three ranked singles players. Junior Paulina Janus rose one spot to No. 91 in this week's rankings while freshman Gyorgyi Zsiros improved two spots to No. 94.

UNLV used six pitchers to hold Southern Utah to four runs. Starter Jared Bonnell gave up three of those runs in the first inning. He gave up five hits with two strikeouts in three innings of work.

Chad Harris (2-0) picked up the win, pitching the fifth and sixth innings. He kept the Thunderbirds scoreless on only one hit. Ben Scheinbaum, James Wickman, Jason Guerra and Jeremy Weinberg all contributed a single inning on the mound.

SUU's Steven Stoker (0-5) earned the loss, giving up 11 runs on eight hits in 4.2 innings.

The Rebels tallied 17 hits, led by David Trujillo's two home run performance. He has a team-leading nine homers on the season.

Joe Wickman finished 3-for-4 with three runs scored. Robert VanKirk drove in four runs, going 2-for-3 at the plate.

Derek Amundsen had a productive night, going 3-for-5 with three RBIs and two runs scored. He also homered.

Jason Reuss hit a three-run homer in the third inning, his fifth of the year. Ryan Ruiz knocked out his sixth home run of the season.

UNLV continues its 10-game road swing with a three-game series at New Mexico on Friday. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. PST.