Jan. 15, 2004

LAS VEGAS - Players from seven of the elite women's college teams in the United States, including a contingent from host UNLV, will gather in Las Vegas this weekend for the Freeman Memorial Tennis Championships at the Fertitta Tennis Complex on campus.

Schools sending competitors include No. 1-ranked Florida, No. 2 Stanford, No. 5 Georgia, No. 9 North Carolina, No. 10 Tennessee and No. 19 Arizona State. Host UNLV, ranked 36th nationally, will add three singles players and one doubles team to the field.

Action begins at 10 a.m. PST on Friday and Saturday and the finals are scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. on Sunday. Admission to all matches is free.

The second annual event features a 32-player singles draw (with one play-in match), consolation rounds and a 16-team doubles draw.

No less than 12 players from the nation's top 100 are scheduled to compete in singles. Leading the way will be the top four seeds -- No. 13-ranked Tammy Encina of Tennessee, No. 21 Alice Barnes of Stanford, No. 34 Aniela Mojzis of UNC and No. 50 Joslyn Burkett of ASU. In doubles, players ranked as high as No. 6 nationally will be on the courts.

Last year's event featured a preview of the NCAA Singles Championship as Tennessee's Vilmarie Castellvi downed Stanford's Amber Liu 6-3, 6-3 in the final. Four months later, Liu would upset Castellvi to win the national title.

Castellvi and partner Melissa Schaub also won the doubles championship at the Freeman Memorial, which was known as the Collegiate Kickoff Classic in its first year.