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As the late-morning sun beats down mercilessly on the back of her arms, legs and neck, Marianne Vallin raises the racket high above her head and, with a sweeping arc, rockets the fluorescent-green tennis ball across the net.
The serve is powerful but long, and Vallin's practice partner, Marie Linusson, freezes in midstep as the ball zips by.
Momentarily upset, Vallin walks in a semicircle, her shoulders slumped. Then up to the baseline she steps once more, and with the same fluid motion as her first attempt, she fires her second serve.
Again, long.
Dejected, Vallin pauses and begins talking to herself in her native Swedish. But the words -- intelligible only to her and her teammate, also a Swede -- quickly are drowned out by one of the many passenger jets rumbling over UNLV's Fertitta Tennis Complex on their takeoffs from nearby McCarran International Airport.
Grumble, grumble. Rumble, rumble.
Life isn't always "game, set, match" -- not even for the best tennis players.
And in the world of women's collegiate tennis, Vallin is one of the best.
The UNLV senior is ranked 11th nationally. She's the primary reason her team is rated 14th, heading into matches against No. 6 Arizona State, No. 10 Georgia and No. 32 Kansas in Lady Rebel Challenge '97, a three-day tournament which begins Thursday on the UNLV campus.
Vallin also is a two-time Intercollegiate Tennis Association all-American, and her 115 career singles victories are only five shy of the school record held by Jolene Watanabe, currently a member of the Women's Tennis Association tour.
But the 5-foot-5 Vallin isn't perfect. And it doesn't take a double-fault -- during a pressure-free practice, no less -- to bear that out.
"I've played OK this season, but I haven't played great," says Vallin, 25-7 at No. 1 singles and riding a seven-match win streak. "Sometimes I can get a little frustrated with myself, and I know I shouldn't. But I'm a fighter and I never give up."
It's that "fighter" approach, along with a stellar baseline game, that makes Vallin superior to most of her opponents. What could make her a national title contender this year, she and her coach, Ola Malmqvist, agree, is improved serving, a stronger net game and the commitment, as Malmqvist puts it, "to stay within herself."
"She has the ability, because she shows it from time to time," Malmqvist says. "I was really happy with the way she played in the fall (14-3), but this spring (11-4), not always so good."
Vallin had a particularly rough stretch in early February, when she went 2-4 and saw her singles ranking tumble from No. 4 to No. 13. But she since has picked up the pace with the seven straight victories to improve to No. 11.
She and freshman partner Gee Gee Garvin also are ranked 26th in doubles with a 12-3 record.
But if Vallin is to truly cap off a standout college career, she knows it will have to come at the NCAA Championships to be held at Stanford in mid-May. She already is UNLV's only three-time NCAA singles qualifier, but her record is an unimpressive 1-3, including two first-round defeats.
"In the first round, most everyone's a little nervous," she explains. "In my case, I guess I've just wanted to win too much."
Which brings Vallin back to that commitment to stay within herself -- something she has no problem with in her academic life. She has a 3 1/2-year grade-point average of 3.60 in her psychology major, and combined with her on-court success she is one of just three national finalists for the Gladys Heldman Award for the senior women's tennis player who best balances athletics and academics.
"It's always been `school first' for me," Vallin says. "Of course, tennis is important. It's taken me through school and allowed me to go to a lot of places. But there's no question, school is most important."
Which makes you wonder how seriously she takes her classwork, when you consider how she handles a simple double-fault in practice.
"I know I can be hard on myself," she concedes. "But that's because I'm aggressive. Just like in life, you can't expect every match to go 6-0, 6-0. But you can expect to win them all."
Or, at worst, get the serves in.
Joe Hawk's column is published Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. He can be reached by e-mail at Joe_Hawk@lvrj.com.
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