April 3, 2002

LAS VEGAS - Despite an upset loss to Mountain West Conference-rival San Diego State last weekend, UNLV's women's team fell only one spot to No. 16 in the Omni Hotels Collegiate Tennis Rankings, which were released by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Wednesday.

The Lady Rebels, who were No. 56 in the preseason poll, are 15-3 this spring with their three losses having come at the hands of teams ranked among the nation's top 25 (No. 3 Wake Forest, No. 4 Stanford and No. 22 San Diego State). 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 8-3 vs. ranked teams this season, will complete its regular season this weekend by playing at Air Force on Saturday and then taking on New Mexico on Sunday, also in Colorado Springs. The second-place Lady Rebels take a 4-1 record vs. MWC opponents into the weekend.

Individually, UNLV boasted two of the league's three ranked women's players. Paulina Janus (17-9) fell 13 spots to No. 84 while freshman Gyorgyi Zsiros (24-7) dropped four places to 92 despite winning 13 consecutive matches.

On the men's side, the Rebels (9-8) moved up four spots to No. 54 after shocking No. 30 San Diego State on Sunday with a 6-1 win. The team's only senior, Thomas Schneiter (19-6), fell 20 spots to No. 88 in singles despite winning 12 of his last 13 matches.

The Rebels will face No. 11 Pepperdine on Saturday before a two-match road swing to close out their regular season vs. BYU on April 12 and Utah on April 13.

ITA COLLEGIATE WOMEN'S RANKINGS
1. Florida2. Georgia3. Wake Forest4. Stanford5. Duke6. Vanderbilt7. UCLA8. North Carolina9. Virginia Commonwealth10. Tennessee11. Arizona State12. Texas13. Southern Cal14. William & Mary15. Kentucky16. UNLV17. Georgia Tech18. Washington19. Northwestern20. South Carolina21. California22. San Diego State23. Notre Dame24. TCU25. Texas A&M