Oct. 23, 2009

LAS VEGAS - The UNLV doubles team of Luca Barlocchi and Mehdi Bouras will play in Saturday's semifinals after posting two impressive victories over tandems from BYU at the ITA Mountain Region Men's Tennis Championships being held at the Darling Tennis Center.

Seeded sixth, the Rebel duo opened with an 8-4 win over ninth-seeded George Batrakov and Daniel Hwang of the Cougars. Barlocchi and Bouras then closed the night with an 8-6 upset of second-seeded Cassidy Mears and Thomas Shubert. The Rebels will play eighth-seeded Lachlan Reed and Adrien Simon of Idaho in the semifinal round Saturday morning.

In consolation play, Rebel senior Matthew Kunkel saw his strong run end with a 7-6, 6-4 loss to 17 seed Roman Warias of BYU. Kunkel and partner Attila Toth also teamed up in consolation doubles and fell 9-8 to Jacob Asplund and Bryan Marchant of Utah State.

Barlocchi and Bouras are also scheduled to play a round of consolation singles on Saturday. The finals are scheduled for Sunday.

"Luca and Mehdi had a great day with two wins over very good doubles teams," UNLV head coach Owen Hambrook said. "The guys played with a lot of intensity and need to keep that going 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
DOUBLES ROUND OF 16(6) Barlocchi/Bouras (UNLV) def. (9) George Batrakov/Daniel Hwang (BYU) 8-4
DOUBLES QUARTERFINALS(6) Barlocchi/Bouras (UNLV) def. (2) Cassidy Mears/Thomas Shubert (BYU) 8-6
DOUBLES CONSOLATIONJacob Asplund/Bryan Marchant (USU) def. Kunkel/Attila Toth (UNLV) 9-8
SINGLES CONSOLATION(17) Roman Warias (BYU) def. Matthew Kunkel (UNLV) 7-6, 6-4