April 29, 2008

LAS VEGAS - Armed with one of the nation's 31 automatic bids, the 37th-ranked UNLV women's tennis team is headed to an NCAA Regional for the second straight season and seventh time in its history as the championship bracket was released on Tuesday.

The Mountain West Conference-tournament champion Lady Rebels (17-8), winners of eight straight matches, will travel to Los Angeles for a first-round rematch with 18th-ranked Pepperdine (19-4) on Friday, May 9, on the campus of Southern California starting at 1 p.m. The following day, the winner of that match will take on the winner of 10th-ranked host USC (17-7), an at-large choice from the Pac-10 Conference, vs. Marist (10-8), which won the Metro Atlantic Conference.

Champions of the regionals will advance to the NCAA Round of 16, which will be played May 15 at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla.

Pepperdine earned an automatic bid after winning its sixth consecutive West Coast Conference title. Missing one starter because of an injury at the time, the Lady Rebels faced Pepperdine at home on March 15 and the Waves won 4-3 at the Fertitta Tennis Complex. The two programs have played each other once before in NCAA play and the Waves downed UNLV 5-2 in Las Vegas during the second round of the 1998 tournament.

"This is a great opportunity for us and Pepperdine is obviously a very talented team that is ranked in the top 20," ninth-year UNLV head coach Kevin Cory said of his fifth NCAA trip since taking over the program. "We had a close match with them earlier this season and now we look forward to playing them at full strength. It's nice to not have to travel very far and we feel we'll have a very good showing at USC."

UNLV, which also played at David X. Marks Tennis Stadium at USC in the 2002 regional, has now earned a spot in five of the last seven NCAA tournaments and holds a 1-6 all-time record in team play. Only one other MWC women's program appeared in this year's 64-team field as 23rd-ranked TCU was an at-large choice after falling to the Lady Rebels in Saturday's conference final.

The fields for the individual singles and doubles tournaments, which will take place at the same site in Tulsa after team play concludes, will be announced on Wednesday.

2008 NCAA WOMEN'S TENNIS REGIONALS (At Los Angeles, CA)May 9:Semifinal 1 p.m.#37 UNLV (17-8) vs. #18 Pepperdine (19-4)Semifinal 4 p.m.#10 Southern California (17-7) vs. Marist (10-8)May 10: Regional Final 3 p.m.
PREVIOUS UNLV WOMEN'S TENNIS NCAA APPEARANCES2007 At Berkeley, CA (Host: Cal)Lost 4-0 in first round to Arizona State
2005 At Austin, TX (Host: Texas)Lost 4-0 in first round to Texas A&M
2003 At Seattle (Host: Washington)Lost 4-0 in first round to Illinois
2002 At Los Angeles (Host: USC)Lost 4-2 in first round to Oregon
1998 At Las Vegas (Host UNLV)Won 5-1 in first round over Washington StateLost 5-2 in second round to Pepperdine
1997 At San Diego (Host USD)Lost 5-4 in first round to San Diego