April 4, 2007

LAS VEGAS - UNLV women's tennis standout Elena Gantcheva earned her program-record-breaking fifth career Mountain West Conference Player of the Week honor, the league announced Wednesday.

Gantcheva won the award for the second consecutive week by turning in one of the most impressive individual performances of her career by going a combined 5-1 in singles and doubles, including a perfect 5-0 vs. ranked competition. With the wins, Gantcheva moved from being unranked to a No. 57 spot in this week's ITA singles rankings and from 35th to 16th in doubles with partner Kristina Nedeltcheva.

The junior did not lose a set in upsetting three opponents in singles play, beginning with a 7-6, 6-1 victory over No. 11 Theresa Logar of Stanford. She then downed No. 105 Ola Abou-Zekry of New Mexico and No. 54 Anna Sydorska of TCU.

In doubles play, the Sofia, Bulgaria, native teamed with Nedeltcheva to knock off two higher-ranked duos to improve to 18-2 on the season. The pair opened with an 8-1 win over No. 34 Anne Yelsey and Lindsay Burdette of Stanford and then knocked off sixth-ranked Anna Sydorska and Ana Cetnik of TCU on the Horned Frogs' home court.

Gantcheva has won seven consecutive singles matches to improve her record to 15-4 in duals and 80-23 overall in her career, which moved her into fourth place all-time at the school. Her other MWC nods came last week, on Feb. 1 and March 28 of 2006, and March 23, 2005.