Oct. 22, 2009

LAS VEGAS - A pair of UNLV singles players won their first matches before falling later in the day Thursday at the ITA Mountain Region Men's Tennis Championships being held at the Darling Memorial Tennis Center.

Fifth-seeded Mehdi Bouras opened the day by downing 17 seed Roman Warias of BYU 6-4, 6-4. He then fell to ninth-seeded Casey Smith of Montana State 7-5, 7-6.

Eighth-seeded Luca Barlocchi fought off Montana State's Pawel Turzanski 6-4, 7-6 but then was ousted by 11 seed Cassidy Mears of BYU 6-3, 6-2.

There was good news in consolation play, however, as senior Matthew Kunkel won twice to stay alive, downing opponents from Air Force and then Utah State.

Bouras and Barlocchi are also still in the mix in the doubles main draw after the sixth-seeded duo rolled into the Round of 16 with an 8-4 victory over Mikolaj Borkowski and Carl Kuschke of Montana.

"It was a tough day for us in the late round," UNLV head coach Owen Hambrook said. "Both Mehdi and Luca played hard but just ran up against good opponents and came up short. Matt Kunkel got a couple of good wins in the consolation and we are looking forward to continuing in doubles play tomorrow."

Wilson/ITA Regional Championships for NCAA Division I men and women are taking place this month at sites throughout the country. Both the singles and doubles champion from this event will earn spots in the November 5-8 ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships hosted by Yale University in New Haven, Conn.

2009 ITA MOUNTAIN REGION MEN'S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPSDarling Memorial Tennis Center, Las Vegas
SINGLES ROUND OF 32(8) Luca Barlocchi (UNLV) def. Pawel Turzanski (MONTANA STATE) 6-4, 7-6(5) Mehdi Bouras (UNLV) def. (17) Roman Warias (BYU) 6-4, 6-4
SINGLES ROUND OF 16(11) Cassidy Mears (BYU) def. (8) Barlocchi (UNLV) 6-3, 6-2(9) Casey Smith (MONTANA STATE) def. (5) Bouras (UNLV) 7-5, 7-6
SINGLES CONSOLATIONMatthew Kunkel (UNLV) def. Taylor Soster (AFA) 7-5, 6-3Kunkel (UNLV) def. Sven Psolusny (USU) 6-4, 3-6, 6-2
DOUBLES ROUND OF 32(6) Barlocchi/Bouras (UNLV) def. Mikolaj Borkowski/Carl Kuschke (MONTANA) 8-4
DOUBLES CONSOLATIONKunkel/Atilla Toth (UNLV) def. Rayner Ramos/David Cysneiros (MONTANA) 8-4