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Worldly aces land at UNLV

Friday, May 11, 2007 | 7:28 a.m.

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It is one thing to apply a little English to an overhead lob, which Elena Gantcheva of the UNLV women's tennis team has been known to do.

It's quite another to apply a little Spanish, Serbian, Italian, Russian, German and a lot of Bulgarian to the ball, which she also is capable of doing.

Gantcheva speaks seven languages, and if the program at this weekend's NCAA women's tennis regional tournament at the University of California were printed in Portuguese, she could even translate it for her teammates.

"I can read Portuguese, but not speak it," she says, almost apologetically.

I told her not to worry, that Vasco da Gama probably wasn't going to be watching from center court, anyway.

Gantcheva isn't the only Rebel who can speak softly in several languages while carrying a big racquet. All seven players on the women's team are foreign-born, while six of the eight players who will represent UNLV in the men's regional tournament at UCLA this weekend hail from overseas.

That doesn't make UNLV unique among NCAA schools. But it does provide for some interesting conversation when it comes to making dinner plans.

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