UNLV men’s tennis team wins conference tourney opener

UNLV defeated UNR 4-1 on Thursday in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Men’s Tennis Championships at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The Rebels improved to 17-6 overall, their most wins since they went 20-7 in 1997. They will meet second-seeded Boise State on Saturday in the semifinals. The Broncos, who defeated UNLV 5-2 in the regular season, advanced with a 4-1 victory over Air Force.

UNLV got doubles victories from Bernard Schoeman and Ace Matias and Tamas Batyi and Johannes Markel to take a 1-0 lead, then clinched the match with singles wins by Matias, Batyi and Charlie Alvarado.

Also, a school-record five men’s players were named all-Mountain West: Matias and freshman Gilad Berman in singles, and the doubles teams of Matias-Schoeman and Batyi-Markel. Berman (18-4, 5-1 MW) was named freshman of the year.

■ UNLV’s Aleksandra Josifoska was named Mountain West women’s tennis player of the year. She was joined in singles by fellow Rebel Lucia Batta. Batta and Nives Pavlovic were named all-conference in doubles.

■ UNLV is fourth after the first round of the 54-hole Mountain West Women’s Golf Championship at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

The Rebels shot 26-over-par 314, eight strokes behind leader Fresno State. Boise State is second at 310, followed by San Diego State at 312.

Katerina Prorokova shot 4-over 76 and is tied for sixth for the Rebels. Demi Mak (77) is tied for 10th, Mayko Chwen Wang (80) is tied for 19th, and Dana Finkelstein (81) and Marguerite Swearingen (81) are tied for 23rd.

Colorado State’s Emily Roering shot 73 to take a one-stroke individual lead.