Jan. 15, 2003

LAS VEGAS - Top players from seven of the elite teams in the United States will gather in Las Vegas this weekend for the 2003 Collegiate Tennis Kickoff, which runs Friday through Sunday at the Fertitta Tennis Complex.

The tournament is a scaled down substitute for a previously announced men's and women's tournament that was to be held on campus (the 26th Annual National Collegiate Tennis Classic), which was suddenly canceled on Wednesday by its California-based organizers. While the men's portion will not be played, UNLV women's head coach Kevin Cory convinced the six other women's teams that had committed to still come to town for a newly named, three-day event that will be run by the school.

"We were very disappointed about the cancellation but we were fortunate to rally the coaches and still put together a quality event," Cory said. "There is going to be some great tennis being played on campus."

The tournament will feature players from 2002 NCAA champion and preseason top-ranked Stanford, No. 2 Florida, No. 3 Georgia, No. 5 North Carolina, No. 11 Tennessee, No. 17 UNLV and No. 22 Notre Dame.

The 22-player singles draw and eight-team doubles draw is scheduled to include, among others, the nation's fourth-ranked player, Vilmarie Castellvi of Tennessee, No. 11 Kate Pinchbeck of North Carolina, No. 13 Alice Barnes and No. 17 Amber Liu, both of Stanford, and No. 26 Zerene Reyes of Florida.

Along with one doubles team, the UNLV women will field three singles entries: No. 85 senior Paulina Janus, sophomore Tracie Chong and junior Agnieszka Abram.

The tournament, which is free and open to the public, will be comprised of two rounds of singles on both Friday and Saturday with the finals set for Sunday. The complete draw and morning start times for matches will not be available until Thursday.