Jan. 6, 2010

LAS VEGAS - The initial Campbell/ITA College Tennis Rankings of 2010 have been released and for the first time in the history of the program two UNLV women's singles players are ranked in the nation's top 50 at the same time.

As a team the Lady Rebels improved two spots from their final ranking of last season, up to No. 41 in the nation, but it was in the singles department that the big jump took place.

Senior star Kristina Nedeltcheva, who was ranked 90th on the preseason list released in September, used her 11-3 fall record to improve 40 full spots to a career-high 50th this week.

Jana Albers, who transferred to UNLV from Nebraska in the off-season, made an even bigger leap as the she went from being unranked all the way to No. 44. The junior's first tournament season in Las Vegas resulted in a 5-1 record that was highlighted by an upset of Texas' Aeriel Ellis, who is currently ranked 22nd overall.

UNLV also boasted an impressive five of the 20 players listed in the ITA Mountain Region in singles. Nedeltcheva stood second, Albers ninth, freshman Nives Pavlovic 10th, junior Anna Maskaljun 16th and junior Adrienn Hidvegi 20th. The program also had the No. 4 doubles team in the region with Nedeltcheva and Albers.

"This is a great achievement for our program," said Kevin Cory. "The girls have worked really hard this fall and it's nice to see that pay off in positive results. Having five players in the top 20 regionally is significant and shows how much quality depth we will have in our lineup this year."