UNLV women expect tough test from Oregon in NCAA tennis

Victoria Sun

Friday, May 10, 2002 | 9:16 a.m.

With a healthy squad, the UNLV women's tennis team confidently heads into the first round of the NCAA Division I team championships that start Saturday.

The 18th-ranked Rebels (20-3) flew to Los Angeles on Thursday morning to prepare for their match against No. 39 Oregon (13-10).

UNLV will play Oregon at 9 a.m. at the University of Southern California's Marks Stadium.

"We feel confident that if we play our game we'll be fine, but we know they're going to be tough," UNLV head coach Kevin Cory said.

Cory, the Mountain West coach of the year, added another award to his collection this week when he was named the 2002 West Region head coach of the year by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. His assistant, Owen Hambrook, was tabbed the ITA West Region assistant coach of the year.

UNLV also bolstered its ranks this week with the return of No. 5 singles player Leentjie Oosthuizen, who missed nine matches because of an illness prior to UNLV winning the MWC championship.

Oosthuizen teams with No. 4 singles player Tracie Chong to form the Rebels' No. 3 doubles team.

"She was a key performer at conference," Cory said. "Having her back makes a tremendous difference.

"I think the doubles point is going to be huge for both teams. We've been working a lot on doubles. We've got three very good teams."

In singles, Chong will play Oregon's Vickie Gunnarsson and Oosthuizen will play Davina Mendiburu.

Cory said key single matches will be at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots held by Paulina Janus and Gyorgyi Zsiros.

Janus will be matched against Oregon's Daria Panova, a freshman from Moscow who became eligible to compete in March.

"She has been outstanding," Cory said. "We haven't seen her play so we don't know a lot about her.

"Paulina's got a very aggresive forehand so she's a solid baseliner with a big serve, definitely somebody who can control matches."

Zsiros will play the Ducks' Monika Gieczys.

"Our most valuable player Gyorgyi Zsiros is most critical for our success," Cory said. "She's demonstrated a lot of leadership this spring.

"If Gyorgyi is playing well, she won't have a lot of trouble."

Janus teams with No. 3 singles player Agnieszka Abram to play No. 1 doubles and Zsiros' partner at No. 2 doubles is No. 6 singles player Marianne Bakken.

At the No. 3 spot, Oregon will send Janice Nyland against Abram.

"She's a solid baseliner, who we feel we match up well against with Agnieszka Abram," Cory said. "That's going to be an important match."

Bakken, the lone senior, will play Courtney Nagle, whose playing style is a mirror image of Bakken's, according to Cory.

"We like how we match up against them," he said."We're just excited to still be playing."