UNLV roundup: Women’s tennis team falls to USC at regional

Danielle Willson won in singles and was part of a doubles victory to help No. 13-ranked Southern California top UNLV 4-0 in an NCAA women’s tennis regional final Sunday in Los Angeles.

The Trojans (20-7) posted 7-5 and 6-4 wins in doubles, while their duo of Angela Kulikov and Rianna Valdes — ranked No. 1 nationally — led Aiwen Zhu and En-Pei Huang 6-5 when the doubles point was clinched.

Zhu was leading Salma Ewing 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 at No. 1 singles, and Huang was locked in a third-set tie at No. 3 singles when the outcome was decided, ending a nine-match win streak by the Rebels (18-7).

Kulikov downed Izumi Asano 6-4, 6-1 at No. 2 singles, and Valdes defeated Jovana Kenic 6-4, 6-4 at No. 4 singles.

Samantha Li led USC’s Becca Weissmann 6-4, 5-1 at No. 6 singles when the outcome was decided. Samantha Li and Connie Li dropped a 7-5 decision to Weissmann and Willson at No. 2 doubles.

SOFTBALL

At Reno, Denise Armendariz hit a two-run homer and Samantha Diaz a solo shot to back Jenny Bressler, who pitched a complete game, leading the Rebels to a 3-2 win over UNR.

Bressler (21-5) took a shutout in to the sixth inning, when Ashley Salausa hit a two-run homer. The freshman allowed six hits and one walk while striking out six.

Armendariz went deep in the first inning and Diaz in the fourth. Justine Federe went 3-for-3 with a double and scored a run for UNLV (33-14, 11-9 Mountain West), which took two of three in the weekend set to end a streak of three straight league series losses.

Sadaria McAlister was the lone player for the Wolf Pack (26-23, 10-11) with multiple hits, going 2-for-4 with a stolen base and scoring on Salausa’s home run.

UNR starter Kali Sargent (6-9) went the distance, allowing three runs on seven hits and no walks while striking out eight.

The victory was Kristie Fox’s 200th as a collegiate coach.

BASEBALL

At Houston, Jared Triolo went 5-for-5 with a home run, a double and five RBIs to power Houston to a 9-2 victory over the Rebels and a sweep of the teams’ two-game weekend set.

Derrick Cherry went 2-for-3 with a stolen base, Kobe Hyland went 2-for-5 with a double and scored three runs, Grayson Padgett went 2-for-2, and Kyle Lovelace had an RBI double and a run-scoring groundout for the Cougars (29-18), who had five doubles and a 17-7 edge in hits.

Houston starter Clay Aguilar (6-3) allowed two runs on six hits and no walks while striking out four over 5 2/3 innings.

Bryson Stott led UNLV (25-23) to a 1-0 lead in the first inning with a single and two stolen bases. He scored on a groundout by Max Smith.

Grant Robbins had an RBI double in the fifth that pulled the Rebels within 3-2. Houston scored two runs each in the sixth, seventh and eighth, while UNLV left seven runners on base in the fifth, sixth and seventh.

Rebels starter Chase Maddux (3-4) allowed three runs on eight hits and three walks while striking out two in 4 1/3 innings.

Stott, with a 2-for-3 showing, was the UNLV player with multiple hits.