April 30, 2003

LAS VEGAS - The 30th-ranked UNLV women's tennis team will travel to the University of Washington in Seattle for the first and second rounds of the 2003 NCAA Division I Championship, as the entire field was announced live on ESPNEWS Wednesday.

The Lady Rebels (16-5 overall and 7-2 in the league) earned an at-large bid to their fourth-ever and second consecutive NCAA team tournament despite falling in the semifinals of the Mountain West Conference tournament last week.

UNLV, which is looking to win its first NCAA match since 1998, will face 25th-ranked Illinois (16-7) in the first round on Saturday, May 10 beginning at 10 a.m. PDT. The fighting Illini went 9-3 in the Big Ten Conference and lost in the league finals to Northwestern.

The winner of that match will face the winner of Southwestern Athletic Conference champion Southern (13-12/9-0) vs. sixth-ranked and sixth-seeded host Washington (17-3/6-2) on May 11. All three matches will take place at the Lloyd Nordstrom Tennis Center on campus.

The winners of the 16 four-team regionals across the nation will gather for the Round of 16 at the University of Florida in Gainesville on May 15-18.

Fourth-year UNLV head coach Kevin Cory said he was pleased that his program could join this year's field without the help of an automatic bid.

"I'm excited that we have earned elite status in college tennis because of what we have accomplished the last couple of seasons," Cory said. "We've obviously earned the respect of people across the country."

Cory's squad will stay on the West Coast for the second straight year after falling in the first round of last year's regional held in Los Angeles.

"It will be a lot of fun going to a great city like Seattle and it is a relatively easy trip for us," said the University of Oregon graduate. "Our region will be very challenging and we have a lot of respect for Illinois, which beat Duke (on Feb. 23) when the Blue Devils were ranked No. 1 in the nation. We are focusing now on getting ready to meet that challenge."

UNLV and Illinois have met just once in women's tennis as the Lady Rebels earned a 5-4 victory in a match played in Tempe, Ariz., on March 7, 1993.

Joining UNLV from the MWC in the NCAA field was 27th-ranked San Diego State, which will travel to Tempe, Ariz., to take on Fresno State in the first round.

UNLV played six of the 64 teams in the field during the spring and managed a 3-3 record, defeating Oklahoma, Texas A&M and San Diego State and falling to top-seeded Stanford, third-seeded Duke and WAC champion Fresno State.

UNLV WOMEN'S TENNIS ALL-TIME NCAA TEAM RESULTS
2002    At Los Angeles    Lost to Oregon 4-2
1998    At Las Vegas    Defeated Washington State 5-1    Lost to Pepperdine 5-2
1997    At San Diego    Lost to San Diego 5-2