April 18, 2006

LAS VEGAS - The UNLV men's tennis team found out Tuesday that it will be seeded fifth at next week's Mountain West Conference Championship in San Diego.

San Diego State University will host both the men's and women's tournaments at the Barnes Tennis Center from April 27-29. The winner of each event receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The Rebels finished the regular season 13-8 overall and tied with both Utah and New Mexico for fourth place in the league at 2-4. A tiebreaker using national rankings was employed and UNLV, which dropped three spots to No. 60 this week in the Fila Collegiate Tennis Rankings, earned the middle seed of the trio.

The Rebels will face off against fourth-seeded and 59th-ranked Utah (14-9) next Thursday beginning at 3 p.m. PDT. The Rebels defeated the Utes 4-3 on April 1 in Las Vegas.

The winner of the UNLV-Utah match will take on top-seeded host SDSU in one semifinal on April 28. The Aztecs will enjoy a first-round bye after claiming the regular-season title with a 6-0 mark.

MWC Men's Tennis Championship First Round Schedule
Thursday, April 27
#2 TCU vs. #7 Air Force (9 a.m.)#3 BYU vs. #6 New Mexico (12 p.m.)#4 Utah vs. #5 UNLV (3 p.m.)#1 San Diego State (BYE)
NOTE: CSU and Wyoming do not fieldmen's tennis programs