Sept. 13, 2007

LAS VEGAS - The UNLV women's tennis team boasts a record-high doubles pairing as well as two singles players included in the preseason FILA Collegiate Tennis Rankings for the second straight season and for the fourth time in program history.

Senior Elena Gantcheva is No. 50 in singles entering her final fall season. The two-time Mountain West Conference Player of the Year was 13th a year ago at this point and 24th as a sophomore but finished her junior campaign at 75. The third-winningest player in school history heads into the tournament season with an 83-26 career mark.

Joining her on the list is sophomore Kristina Nedeltcheva at No. 121. The fellow native of Sofia, Bulgaria, was ranked 85th in February and closed her rookie campaign 20-12 overall while playing behind Gantcheva in the singles lineup.

The duo already shattered another record in doubles by being ranked fifth in the nation in the preseason poll. The previous best such ranking for a UNLV women's team was No. 26 by Marianne Vallin and Veronica Goude in 1997.

Back in June, Gantcheva and Nedeltcheva posted the highest final ranking in program history at No. 18 in the nation as well as No. 2 in the region after finishing with a 24-4 record. The duo went 6-2 vs. ranked opponents, 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.

"Being ranked among the top five in the nation is a tremendous achievement for the UNLV tennis program and is something the entire athletic department can be proud of," head coach Kevin Cory said. "Elena and Kristina will be going head to head with some of the best competition college tennis has to offer and they will look to do some special things this season."