Jan. 21, 2005

LAS VEGAS - Although still waiting for at least two spring recruits to hit town, UNLV men's tennis head coach Owen Hambrook will lead his team into its first action of 2005 on the road Saturday.

The Rebels, who are unranked in the preseason, travel to the ITA Mountain Region Team Championship, which is taking place Saturday in Boise, Idaho. Four teams earned spots in the mini-tournament by emerging with the most points from last fall's ITA Individual Championships held in Las Vegas. All 16 teams were awarded points for each singles and doubles match won among their respective contingent.

Host Boise State, ranked 42nd in the national rankings, will start the day by playing UNLV at 8 a.m. PST while Colorado will face New Mexico at 11 a.m. The winners of those two matches will then play each other at 5 p.m. Saturday with the survivor receiving an automatic berth into the ITA National Team Indoor Championship, which will be played Feb. 17-20 in Chicago.

All matches will be played in the Boas Indoor Tennis Center.

While UNLV's roster is still incomplete, the Rebels will be led by 38th-ranked senior Henner Nehles and 100th-ranked senior Aviram Salomon.

Boise State boasts three ranked singles players in No. 41 Luke Shields, No. 55 Matias Silva and No. 89 Thomas Schoeck. In addition, the doubles team of Schoeck and Shields is ranked 12th in the nation.