Oct. 24, 2009

LAS VEGAS - The UNLV doubles team of Luca Barlocchi and Mehdi Bouras has moved into Sunday's championship match at the ITA Mountain Region Men's Tennis Championships, which are being held at the Darling Tennis Center.

Seeded sixth, the Rebel duo on Saturday knocked off eighth-seeded Lachlan Reed and Adrien Simon of Idaho in the semifinals. UNLV will now face the tournament's fourth seed, Utah's Phillip Ellers and Alex Golding, who advanced by upsetting the top seeded duo on Saturday.

The title match is scheduled for 9 a.m. and the winning tandem earns a spot in the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, which will be hosted by Yale University on Nov. 5-8.

Bouras also played one round of singles consolation and downed 25th-seeded Jens Vorkefeld of Denver when his opponent retired with an injury and the score at 3-2 in favor of the Rebel standout.

"Mehdi and Luca played a very good match against a talented team from Idaho today," UNLV head coach Owen Hambrook said. "They have really been working hard and it's paying off. It's a pretty big deal to have someone in the finals of an ITA regional so we're looking forward to tomorrow."

2009 ITA MOUNTAIN REGION MEN'S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPSDarling Memorial Tennis Center, Las Vegas
DOUBLES SEMFINALS(6) Luca Barlocchi/Mehdi Bouras (UNLV) def. (8) Lachlan Reed/Adrien Simon (IDAHO) 8-4
SINGLES CONSOLATION(5) Mehdi Bouras (UNLV) def. (25) Jens Vorkefeld (DU) 3-2 retired