UNLV’s surging men’s tennis team in Mountain West tourney

The UNLV men’s tennis team will host the Mountain West Championship for the first time since 2010 from Friday to Sunday at the Fertitta Tennis Complex.

The Rebels will be gunning for their first conference title since 2007, the last time they won more than one match at the postseason tournament.

The league features three ranked teams in No. 56 Utah State, No. 60 Boise State and No. 62 New Mexico, but longtime UNLV coach Owen Hambrook said the event is wide open.

“Anyone can win it, including us. No one is unbeatable, by any means,” said Hambrook, who is in his 13th season at the UNLV helm. “We want to invite the local community to come out. It’s a great event for college tennis, it’s going to be a lot of fun and we’re really excited about it.”

Seedings will be announced Wednesday. The tournament will feature quarterfinal matches Friday at 9 a.m., noon and 3 and 6 p.m. The semifinals are scheduled for Saturday at 3 and 6 p.m., with Sunday’s title match slated for 2 p.m.

The young Rebels (12-9, 5-2 MW), who closed out the regular season with three consecutive home wins, including two over conference foes San Diego State and Air Force, are battle-tested after playing eight ranked teams this season. They won only one of those matches, against the Lobos, while dropping a pair of 4-3 defeats.

“We played a very tough schedule for a reason,” Hambrook said. “We definitely had a very high level of competition and I think that definitely helps us going into the tournament.”

Likewise, junior Jakob Amilon — UNLV’s No. 1 player, team captain and only upperclassmen — said taking on the opponent’s top player in each match has raised the level of his game.

“It’s not easy playing (No.) 1. No matter what team we play, it’s going to be a tough match,” he said. “You have to be at your best every day and that really helps you get better as well.”

Hambrook praised Amilon’s performance on and off the court.

“It’s a big deal to play No. 1 at any program,” he said. “We’ve always had really good No. 1s and Jakob is right up there with them. He’s very, very solid.”

Amilon is 17-7 in singles and 13-6 in doubles with Ruben Alberts, who is 14-9 in singles. Amilon also has helped ease the transition to the United States for Rebels freshman Richard Solberg, a fellow native of Stockholm, who is 12-7 in singles.

“I’m also good friends with his older brother,” Amilon said. “It was good for him to have a Swede here already. It was easier to get used to life here.”

Alexandr Cozbinov, the Rebels’ No. 2 player, is 19-7 in singles and earlier this year won a Davis Cup match for his home nation of Moldova.

Amilon, who said Boise State was the toughest league foe UNLV faced this season, likes the Rebels’ chances to win the tournament.

“The conference is closer than ever. Pretty much anybody can win it,” he said. “We’re very confident. We have a good shot at winning this thing.

“It’s going to be great playing at home. It makes a big difference.”

WOMEN’S TENNIS AIMS FOR CONFERENCE CROWN

The No. 68-ranked UNLV women’s tennis team (21-1) will try to add to its already impressive season by winning the Mountain West championship, scheduled for Thursday to Sunday at Colorado State.

The Rebels, who opened the season with a program-record 19 straight wins before losing at No. 41 Fresno State, beat San Diego State 4-1 on Saturday to close out their best regular season in school history.

UNLV, which also will be tested this week by No. 52 New Mexico, is led by Carol Zi Yang, Aiwen Zhu, Paola Artiga, Anna Bogoslavets and Iren Kotseva.

Yang is 21-4 in singles, where she’s ranked No. 102 in the nation. Yang and fellow Chinese native Aiwen Zhu are ranked No. 74 in doubles, where they’re 16-5 together. Zhu is 22-9 in singles.

Artiga is 29-6 in singles and 18-2 in doubles with Kotseva, who is 13-1 in singles. Bogoslavets is 21-1 in singles.

REBELS BAT A THOUSAND ON APR

Five UNLV sports programs earned a perfect single-year NCAA Academic Progress Rate score of 1,000 for the 2014-15 academic year: men’s basketball and golf and women’s golf, soccer and volleyball.

The women’s golf team, fresh off winning its fifth Mountain West title, compiled a perfect APR score for the sixth time in seven years. All 16 of UNLV’s NCAA Division I sports programs have a multiyear APR score that exceeds the NCAA minimum cut score of 930.

A score of 1,000 means the program has met the goals of retention and satisfactory degree progress for 100 percent of its student-athletes in a given time period. A score of 900 equates to 90 percent and so forth.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354. Follow him on Twitter: @tdewey33