Jan. 14, 2003

LAS VEGAS - The UNLV women's team set a program record with its first top-20 preseason nod in school history as the Omni Hotels Intercollegiate Tennis Rankings were released by the national governing body.

The No. 17 Lady Rebels, who are tied with Georgia Tech with 1,329 points, finished 20-4 in 2002 and closed the campaign at No. 20, which was a program-high for a final ranking. The defending Mountain West Conference champions' previous best preseason ranking came in 1997 when the school began 27th.

The next-highest ranked team from the MWC is No. 28 San Diego State, which plays at UNLV on March 28. Two members of the preseason top five will take on the Lady Rebels in Las Vegas this spring: Top-ranked and defending national champion Stanford visits March 25 while No. 4 Duke makes its first-ever trip to campus March 12.

Individually, senior singles player Paulina Janus (20-12 last season) is ranked 85th while 2002 MWC Freshman of the Year Gyorgyi Zsiros (29-7) is No. 120. The women's squad returns four of its six starters from a year ago.

On the men's side, the Rebels (10-12 in 2002) are ranked No. 68 in the preseason but have no singles or doubles players listed as they return only one starter from a team that a year ago that was unranked in the preseason.

2003 OMNI HOTELS ITA PRESEASONWOMEN'S TENNIS RANKINGS
PL  SCHOOL (NO. 1 VOTES)
1.  Stanford (20)2.  Florida (6)3.  Georgia (4)4.  Duke (3)5.  North Carolina6.  Arizona State7.  UCLA8.  Vanderbilt9.  Southern Cal10. California11. Tennessee12. Northwestern13.     Texas14. Kentucky15.     Wake Forest16. William & Mary17. UNLV17. Georgia Tech19. South Carolina20. Arizona