March 20, 2002

LAS VEGAS - UNLV's women's team moved up 10 spots to No. 17 in the nation this week as the Omni Hotels Collegiate Tennis Rankings were released by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Wednesday.

The Lady Rebels are 10-2 this spring with both losses having come at the hands of teams ranked among the nation's top five (No. 2 Wake Forest and No. 5 Stanford). The only other time the UNLV women's program was ranked in the top 20 was four weeks in 1997 when the squad rose to a school-record No. 14.

Third-year head coach Kevin Cory said the big jump from preseason No. 56 to the top 20 in just the last two months puts even his most optimistic plans ahead of schedule.

"When I took the job here, I didn't think a spot in the top 25 would come so quickly but I knew this year's team had the potential to do some big things," Cory said. "We are pleased where we are, but we have a couple of challenging weeks ahead of us to prepare for."

Individually, two Lady Rebels are among the top 100 players. Freshman Gyorgyi Zsiros (18-7) moved up four spots to No. 88 while top player Paulina Janus (12-8) went from unranked all the way to No. 71 after upsetting the nation's 20th-ranked player last week. UNLV, which is 6-2 vs. ranked teams this season, opens Mountain West Conference play by hosting No. 31 Brigham Young Friday beginning at 2 p.m.

On the men's side, the Rebels fell out of the 75-team rankings for the first time since Feb. 21, 2001, while top player Thomas Schneiter (15-5) dropped six spots to No. 68 despite winning his last eight matches.

ITA COLLEGIATE WOMEN'S RANKINGS1. Georgia2. Wake Forest3. Florida4. Vanderbilt5t. Stanford5t. UCLA7. Duke8. North Carolina9. Tennessee10. Arizona State11. Kentucky12. Virginia Commonwealth13. Northwestern14. Washington15. William & Mary16. Texas17. UNLV18. Fresno State19. Southern California20. Texas A&M21. Georgia Tech22. Notre Dame23. South Carolina24. South Alabama25. Ole Miss
UNLV WOMEN'S TENNIS ITA TOP 20 ALL-TIME APPEARANCES
DATE        RANKMarch 18, 1997  14*April 15, 1997  15April 1, 1997   16March 20, 2002  17April 29, 1997  18
*School Record