March 27, 2002

LAS VEGAS - UNLV's women's team moved up two spots to No. 15 in the nation this week as the Omni Hotels Collegiate Tennis Rankings were released by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Wednesday.

The Lady Rebels, who were No. 56 in the preseason poll, are 13-2 this spring with both losses having come at the hands of teams ranked among the nation's top six (No. 3 Wake Forest and No. 6 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.

UNLV, which is 8-2 vs. ranked teams this season, will return to Mountain West Conference play with three matches in San Diego this weekend. The Lady Rebels face a showdown vs. No. 29-ranked host San Diego State on Thursday, then will take on unranked Colorado State on Friday and unranked Wyoming on Saturday.

Individual rankings will not be released until April 3.

On the men's side, the Rebels went from unranked all the way to No. 58 as part of the 75-team rankings.

ITA COLLEGIATE WOMEN'S RANKINGS
1. Florida2. Georgia3. Wake Forest4. Duke5. Vanderbilt6. Stanford7. North Carolina8. UCLA9. Virginia Commonwealth10. Arizona State11. William & Mary12. Tennessee13. Kentucky14. Texas15. UNLV16. Southern Cal17. Northwestern18. Georgia Tech19. Washington20. California21. Texas A&M22. Florida International23. Notre Dame24. South Carolina25. Fresno State


UNLV WOMEN'S TENNIS ITA TOP 20 ALL-TIME APPEARANCES
DATE            RANKMarch 18, 1997  14*March 26, 2002  15April 15, 1997  15April 1, 1997   16March 20, 2002  17April 29, 1997  18

*School Record