UNLV men’s tennis hopes to build on 2016 success

Owen Hambrook will get to experience one of the rarest of luxuries in his 14th season coaching UNLV men’s tennis team: fielding an experienced team that’s already proved it can win.

The Rebels finished in a three-way tie for second in the Mountain West standings last spring and won the conference tournament for the second time in program history.

This season UNLV returns 90 of its 91 singles wins and 35 of its 36 doubles victories from a year ago, and the seasoned squad appears to be embracing expectations before its first spring matches against New Mexico State and Weber State on Friday.

“This year we feel we’re the team to beat,” senior Jakob Amilon said. “Because we did well last year, we know our potential now. We have a good chance of being more successful this year.”

Amilon, the team’s top singles player, worked to get physically stronger in the offseason after earning a spot on the All-Mountain West singles and doubles team as a junior. In the fall, he became the first Rebels player since 2004 to earn a spot at the National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships.

Amilon was ranked No. 124 during the tournament but enters the preseason unranked after bowing out of the event in the first consolation round. It’s something he said he intends to change after his first few matches.

“For sure, it is. It’s an individual goal to stay ranked,” Amilon said. “I think I’m pretty close to being ranked right now.”

Hambrook said the Rebels singles lineup hasn’t changed much, with eight of the team’s nine players from last year returning. Behind Amilon the team also brings back junior Alexandr Cozbinov, an All-Mountain West First Team selection last year who went 6-1 in conference play.

“He’s really unbelievable as an athlete, moving,” Hambrook said. “We’re expecting big things from him as well.”

The team’s singles lineup will undergo some early tweaks, but things will be mixed up more in doubles. The Rebels top three pairs from a season ago are back, but Hambrook has been willing to experiment so far.

“We’ve got so many different combinations, we’ve got the luxury to move stuff around,” Hambrook said. “We’re going to try a few different ones and see what happens.”

Even with all its returning players, UNLV still has just two seniors on the team. If its young talent from last season continues to develop, the Rebels could easily stand out in what Hambrook described as a “pretty even” Mountain West.

“I think we’ve been better than we were a year ago, to be honest,” Hambrook said. “Another year of experience, another year of everyone developing.”

WOMEN’S TENNIS

The Rebels get an early week off after getting off to a strong start in conference play.

The team won its first two matches of the year against New Mexico State and Pacific at home, then split against Pepperdine and Arkansas in Malibu, California, as part of the International Tennis Association Kickoff Weekend.

SWIMMING AND DIVING

The women’s team will take 2½ weeks off to prepare for the Mountain West championships, which start Feb. 15, and to improve on their fifth-place finish from a season ago.

The men will get a little more than three weeks off to prepare for the Western Athletic Conference Championships, which begin Feb. 22. They finished fourth last season.

Contact reporter Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.