April 17, 2007

LAS VEGAS - The 75th-ranked UNLV men's tennis team is seeded third and will face sixth-seeded Utah to open play at next week's Mountain West Conference Championships, the league announced Tuesday.

The Rebels stand 10-13 overall and went 3-3 in league play to tie for third place with New Mexico. However, with UNLV having defeated the Lobos 4-3 during the regular season, head coach Owen Hambrook's squad received the higher seed.

The tournament, which is being staged at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, begins on Thursday when UNLV and Utah will meet in a quarterfinal match on 11 a.m. PT. The winner of that match will face the winner of the Air Force-TCU match on Friday in one semifinal. The championship is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. PT.

Utah (12-10/2-4) escaped with a 4-3 victory over UNLV when the teams met during the regular season on March 31 in San Diego. The two programs have faced each other four times previously in the seven-year history of the MWC championships. The Utes took 4-3 victories in 2002, '03 and just last year, while the Rebels won 4-1 in the 2005 quarterfinals.

2007 MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE MEN'S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
Thursday, April 268 a.m. PT   Quarterfinal Match #1  No. 4 New Mexico vs. No. 5 BYU11 a.m. PT  Quarterfinal Match #2  No. 3 UNLV vs. No. 6 Utah2 p.m. PT   Quarterfinal Match #3  No. 2 TCU vs. No. 7 Air Force
Friday, April 279 a.m. PT   Semifinal Match #1     No. 1 San Diego State vs. UNM/BYU Winner1 p.m. PT   Semifinal Match #2     UNLV/Utah Winner vs. TCU/AFA Winner
Saturday, April 281 p.m. PT   Championship Match