Draw Announced For UNLV NCAA Tennis Entries

Malec and Bakken to represent the Rebels.

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May 22, 2000

MALIBU, Calif -- UNLV senior Katarina Malec and doubles partner Marianne Bakken will have the advantage of playing lower ranked opponents in Monday's first round of the NCAA singles and doubles championships.

The draws for both tournaments, which run through May 26 on the campus of Pepperdine University, were released Saturday.

Malec (35-5), ranked 29th, will take on 49th-ranked senior Veronika Safarova of Southern California in the 64-player field.

Only the third Lady Rebel to earn a spot in the national singles tournament, Malec has won 15 straight matches and is two away from tying Marianne Vallin's 1994 school record for single-season victories.

Monday's survivor will face the winner of a match between California's 14th-ranked Amy Jensen and Clemson's 26th-ranked Carmina Giraldo.

In the 32-team doubles bracket, Malec and Bakken (24-3) look to become the first UNLV doubles team to win even a single match at the NCAA event -- and will attempt it against a familiar foe.

The winners of 14 straight, the 27th-ranked UNLV duo is scheduled to face 46th-ranked Ashleigh Dolman and Maria Galoustova of Oklahoma State for the third time this season.

Malec and Bakken lost to Dolman and Galoustova, 8-5, at the UNLV Fall Invitational on October 1 but the Lady Rebel pair downed the Cowgirl duo 8-3 on March 14 as part of a dual match played in Las Vegas.

Monday's winner will take on the winner of fifth-ranked Claire Curran and Jensen of California vs. ninth-ranked Sarah Walker and Amanda Basica of UCLA.

2000 UNLV NCAA WOMEN'S TENNIS NOTES
No UNLV woman has ever won more than one match in singles at the NCAA tournament and even one doubles match at the national event ... Katarina Malec is only the second player in school history to qualify for both an NCAA singles and doubles tournament during her career. Three-time All-American Marianne Vallin was the first with four singles bids and three doubles appearances ... Malec heads into the NCAA tournament with a 13-2 record vs. ranked opponents. Malec's 35 victories overall are the second-most single-season wins in UNLV history. She needs two more to tie the school record of 37 set by Vallin in 1994. Malec also has the highest single-season (.875) and career winning percentage (.808) in UNLV history ... Malec has won 29 consecutive matches in singles (15) and doubles (14) combined. The last time the native of Warsaw, Poland, lost was February 25th when she fell in singles to now-top-ranked Marissa Irvin of Stanford 6-4, 6-1, and in doubles with partner Marianne Bakken to the NCAA tournament's top seed, Irvin and Teryn Ashley ... Malec and Bakken recorded their biggest win of the year when the duo upset the nation's top-ranked doubles team of Zuzana Lesenarova and Katarina Valkyova of San Diego on April 2. The 9-8 tie-breaker victory sealed a 5-4 dual-match upset of the Toreros and turned around the Lady Rebels' season as UNLV (15-9) won its final five matches ... Malec, a four-time conference player of the week this spring, became the third UNLV woman to be named her league's MVP when she was tabbed Mountain West Player of the Year. Vallin won the award thrice (1994, '96, '97) and Jolene Watanabe once (1990).