Feb. 21, 2007

LAS VEGAS - Leading up to the most important home weekend of the season, the UNLV women's tennis team earned three individual spots nationally as the Fila Collegiate Tennis Rankings were released on Wednesday.

In singles, freshman Kristina Nedeltcheva earned her first career ranking at No. 80. The native of Sofia, Bulgaria, becomes the third Lady Rebel to earn a national singles ranking this season (2006 All-American Elena Gantcheva, who has not played enough matches to be ranked this week, was at No. 13 in September's preseason poll, while teammate Nikol Dimitrova stood 82nd in the fall).

Nedeltcheva, who is 9-2 overall, has only lost one set while compiling a 5-0 record in dual matches. This marks the first time since 2003 that three UNLV women's players were ranked at some point during the same season.

In doubles, the Lady Rebels earned two spots in the national rankings for the first time in program history. The team of Nedeltcheva and Gantcheva went all the way from unranked to No. 26 after turning in a 6-0 overall mark, including 4-0 in dual matches. Also ranked is the duo of senior Claire Smith and freshman Alisa Razina, who are 6-0 on the young season. This is the second entry to the national rankings for Smith as she and former Lady Rebel Gyorgyi Zsiros were the last UNLV doubles team to make the list back in April 2005.

As a team, UNLV (6-0) remained at No. 39 after taking last week off. The Lady Rebels have yet to surrender even a single point in 2007, downing their opponents by a combined score of 42-0. However, the competition will take a huge jump this weekend as three teams ranked ahead of UNLV visit the Fertitta Tennis Complex.

Head coach Kevin Cory's squad will face No. 26 Long Beach State on Friday, No. 18 Fresno State on Saturday and No. 31 Florida International on Sunday. All three matches are scheduled to begin with doubles play at 10 a.m. PST. Admission to all UNLV home matches is free.