June 5, 2007

LAS VEGAS - UNLV's top women's doubles team broke the school record for highest final standing as the season-ending national and regional rankings were released by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

Junior Elena Gantcheva and freshman Kristina Nedeltcheva moved up two spots to No. 18 in the nation as well as No. 2 in the region after finishing with a 24-4 record. The duo from Sofia, Bulgaria, went 6-2 vs. ranked opponents this season, including three victories over teams ranked ahead of them in the final poll (No. 3 from TCU, No. 6 from Georgia Tech and No. 13 from Stanford). They also became only the second doubles team in program history to advance to the Round of 16 at the NCAA Doubles Championship.

Gantcheva, who also went 1-0 with partner Nikol Dimitrova, tied the school record for doubles single-season winning percentage at .862 by matching the 25-4 overall mark of Marianne Bakken in 2000.

Gantcheva (19-8) was also ranked in the final poll of the season in singles for the third consecutive year at No. 75. This spring the two-time Mountain West Conference Player of the Year won her way into third place on the program's career victories list with an 83-26 all-time mark. In addition, she was ranked 11th in the ultra-competitive West Region while Nedeltcheva (20-12) was at No. 28 regionally.

As a team the Lady Rebels (19-8), who finished with their most victories since 2002 and second-most since 1991, finished the year ranked 46th, marking the sixth straight season Cory's program has finished among in the nation's top 50.