There is strength in numbers.

There is no substitute for experience.

There is light at the end of the tunnel.

The UNLV men's tennis team ultimately learned all of these lessons first hand in 2003. Head coach Dr. Larry Easley entered his 12th season leading the program hoping to reverse the previous campaign's losing record, but despite a preseason ranking of 68, the Rebels were simply outmanned.

A thin squad of just six student-athletes would also suffer from the unfortunate makeup of only three sophomores to go with three freshmen on the brief roster. And it showed in the final numbers: a school-record low number of team victories went hand-in-hand with a first-ever last-place Mountain West Conference finish.

That is not to say the team was devoid of talent. Returning MWC Rookie of the Year Aviram Salomon was a solid sophomore to go with a pair of impressive rookie recruits -- Henner Nehles and Romain Massaro -- who joined the team in spring.

However, nowhere was the lack of depth more prevalent than in the season-opening trip to Southern California. With Nehles still not cleared to join the lineup, UNLV had only five players and had to forfeit a doubles and singles match before the teams even took the court for warm-ups in 7-0 losses to No. 18 Pepperdine and top-ranked UCLA.

The home schedule opened with the annual spring invitational Feb. 14-16. After enjoying a first-round bye, UNLV moved into the championship match by earning its first victory of the season, 5-2 over in-state rival Nevada, Reno. The Rebels opened by winning a tight doubles battle for one team point. In singles play, UNR got on the board with a straight-set win at the sixth spot. UNLV then got wins from Nehles and Salomon to go up 3-1. UNR won at four to draw within one before Massaro finished his rally at the top spot and transfer Joel Keilbowicz won a long three-setter on court five.

Any momentum gained from downing their in-state rivals was lost in Sunday's title match, however, as the Rebels fell to Pacific 4-0 and failed to win their own tourney for the first time in eight years.

The annual March trip to Corpus Christi, Texas, for the HEB Team Tournament was next up and UNLV came home winless after falling to Louisiana-Lafayette, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Colorado.

One bright spot from the event was the emergence of Nehles at the top of the lineup. The freshman's 2-0 record at the HEB included upsetting No. 57-ranked Christophe Bergues of Texas A&M-CC, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4. For his efforts, Nehles picked up his program's lone Mountain West Conference Men's Tennis Player of the Week honor in 2003.

Returning home for a mid-March homestand, UNLV fell to South Carolina before holding a second invitational - the Rebel Classic. The hosts played Montana State-Billings in the opening round and won 6-1 behind singles victories from Nehles, Massaro, Salomon, Milos Blagojevic and Kielbowicz.

However, an unusually rainy Southern Nevada weekend canceled the remaining two days of the tournament after multiple showers forced delays, meaning the Rebels' home schedule ended abruptly with a final mark of 2-2.

Mountain West play began March 28 with a round-robin event in San Diego. A 6-1 loss to New Mexico was followed by only the second loss ever to No. 75 Air Force, 5-2. A short-handed San Diego State squad, ranked 34th, then got by UNLV 5-2 to close the trip.

After a trip to Utah produced two more defeats to close out the regular season, UNLV traveled right back to Provo three weeks later hoping to make a last stand at the conference tourney. In a match that was much closer than the final score indicated, the Rebels were downed 4-1 by No. 61 BYU in the first round. In a tough doubles competition, the host Cougars won on the third court before UNLV evened things at No. 2 where Salomon and Kielbowicz teamed up for an 8-3 final. The team point was claimed by BYU, however, with its 8-6 win at the top spot.

In singles play, UNLV won the first set on three of six courts but only Kielbowicz ultimately scored for the Rebels, 6-2, 7-6 over Jeff Olsen at the fourth position. Two matches that were heading to a third set, at No. 1 and No. 3, were halted when BYU reached four team points. With a final chance to pick up a league win, UNLV fell to Utah 4-2 in the fifth-place match despite showing even more grit. After dropping the doubles point, UNLV fought back by taking the top two matches of singles. Nehles defeated Daniel Lohff 6-3, 6-2 at No. 1 and Salomon eased by Roeland Brateanu 6-1, 6-2 at No. 2 for the Rebels' two points. The Utes, however, won all three of the lower matches in straight sets to clinch the win. The match at No. 4 was then halted with UNLV leading.

Despite its winless league record, UNLV saw two of its players earn All-Mountain West Conference honors. Salomon was named all-league after a 7-1 record at the No. 3 singles spot, including a 4-1 mark vs. MWC opponents. Nehles was also included after compiling a 7-5 overall record, mainly at the top position.

After the Rebels finished the season 2-14 overall, the school announced in June that a coaching change was in order.

Easley would leave as the second-winningest coach in Rebel history with a record of 141-120 but the four-time conference coach of the year saw his program struggle to a 33-50 mark the previous four seasons. Regardless, under his guidance, UNLV won three consecutive Big West Conference titles in 1994-96 while former Rebel Luke Smith won the 1997 NCAA singles title and also teamed with Tim Blenkiron to earn the national doubles crown. Easley's career coaching record stood at 208-143, including three seasons at Long Beach State from 1985-87.

Just over a month later, UNLV announced that women's assistant Owen Hambrook would move over to serve as the men's interim head coach.