May 4, 2006

LAS VEGAS - UNLV tennis star Elena Gantcheva continued her magical sophomore season by becoming the second player in school history to earn a seed at the NCAA Championships and in turn becomes the program's third-ever All-American, as the NCAA released its individual draws on Thursday.

Gantcheva, the 2006 Mountain West Conference Player of the Year, earned the league's automatic bid to the national singles tournament and was placed among seeds 9-16, which were listed alphabetically. Because all 16 seeded players in the 64-player field automatically earn All-America status from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, Gantcheva follows Katarina Malec in 2000 and Marianne Vallin in 1994, '96 and '97 as Lady Rebel netters to earn such status.

Gantcheva, who has won 11 straight matches, will head to the tournament with a 33-8 singles record, including an impressive 8-3 mark vs. top-25 opponents. The native of Sofia, Bulgaria, is the first UNLV woman to be seeded since Vallin was also placed in the 9-16 range in both 1994 and 1996.

"What an amazing year Elena has had," UNLV head coach Kevin Cory said. "Being seeded at the NCAA tournament says a lot about her and UNLV tennis. However, this is just the beginning because the seedings don't mean anything once the first ball is struck. I know Elena is really looking forward to the challenge."

Gantcheva will head to Palo Alto, Calif., to play in the season-ending event at Stanford's Taube Tennis Center on May 23-28. It will mark the first time a Lady Rebel has competed in the tournament since Paulina Janus in 2001. Gantcheva earned a wild-card entry last year but was forced to withdraw from the field because of a wrist injury. Four other Lady Rebels have played in the NCAA singles tournament a total of seven times. In 2000 Malec became the first Lady Rebel to get past the second round when she rolled into the final four before falling the semifinals to the eventual national champion.

2006 NCAA WOMEN'S TENNIS SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIP
Seeds 1-8:1. Audra Cohen - Miami (Fla.)2. Kristi Miller - Georgia Tech3. Daniela Bercek - Duke4. Zuzana Zemenova - Baylor5. Zsuzsanna Fodor - California6. Amanda Fink - Southern California7. Alice Barnes - Stanford8. Amber Liu - StanfordSeeds 9-16 (alphabetically):Zuzana Cerna - BaylorElena Gantcheva - UNLVAlexis Gordon - FloridaCristelle Grier - NorthwesternNicole Leimbach - TCUTheresa Logar - StanfordDiana Srebrovic - FloridaAnne Yelsey - Stanford
ALL-TIME UNLV WOMEN'S TENNIS ALL-AMERICANS
PLAYER          YEAR(S)Elena Gantcheva 2006Katarina Malec  2000Marianne Vallin 1994, '96, '97