May 25, 2007

ATHENS, Ga. - UNLV's Elena Gantcheva and Kristina Nedeltcheva forged an early lead but then saw their opponents dominate the rest of the way en route to a two-set loss in Friday's Round of 16 at the NCAA Doubles Championship at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.

Gantcheva and Nedeltcheva, ranked 20th in the nation, were fresh off a first-round upset of the nation's third-ranked team but today fell to 21st-ranked Lindsay Burdette and Anne Yelsey of powerhouse Stanford, 6-3, 6-1, to end their season 24-4 overall.

After a hot start, the Lady Rebel duo seemed to be cruising, leading 3-1 and having Gantcheva serving with a 30-0 advantage in game five. The top Cardinal team, however, rallied to win that game and then eventually take the set. In fact, Stanford won seven consecutive games before UNLV even got back on the scoreboard. In the second set, the Lady Rebels had one last chance to get back into the match, serving what was game point to make it 2-2. Instead, Stanford won the game to take a 3-1 lead and soon finished out the match.

The second-round meeting was a rematch as Gantcheva and Nedeltcheva downed Burdette and Yelsey 8-1 in a dual-match in Las Vegas back on March 28. With the loss, the Lady Rebel duo fell just short of becoming the program's first-ever All-American doubles team.

"Elena and Kristina will still go down as one of, if not the, best doubles teams UNLV has had," said head coach Kevin Cory. "They proved yesterday that they can beat anyone in the country when they are playing well. Hopefully this experience will put them into position to make a run at the title next year."