March 2, 2005

LAS VEGAS - UNLV senior Anne Claire Ortiz-Luis earned her first career Mountain West Conference Women's Tennis Player of the Week honor, which was also the first for her team in 2005, the league announced Wednesday.

Ortiz-Luis went a combined 4-0 in singles and doubles last weekend to help her team advance to the championship match of the Lady Rebel Classic. The native of Fontana, Calif., won easily in both singles and doubles vs. Northern Arizona on Friday. Then, in the semifinal match vs. No. 21-ranked Fresno State, Ortiz-Luis teamed with Linda Tempelfelde to win a key doubles match. Later in the day, with five matches complete in singles play, the score stood tied at three. Ortiz-Luis was the last one on the courts vs. Courtney Jantz at the fourth position. After Jantz rallied in the second set to force and win a tiebreaker, Ortiz-Luis also lost the first two games of the deciding set. However, the Lady Rebel leader struck back to win six straight games to close out her opponent and win the match for her team. It was a victory that pushed UNLV up 18 spots in the national rankings to No. 30 while Ortiz-Luis improved to 9-4 in singles and 6-1 in doubles this season.

The former transfer is the first Lady Rebel tennis player to earn the award since Gyorgyi Zsiros on April 14, 2004.

Utah's Nick Coutts was named the MWC Men's Tennis Player of the W Week.

The Lady Rebels (3-1) get back on the courts Friday when they host Utah State beginning at 1 p.m.