April 14, 2010

LAS VEGAS - UNLV senior Luca Barlocchi has been named the Mountain West Conference Men's Tennis Player of the Week for the first time in his career, the league announced Wednesday.

The product of Zurich, Switzerland, went a combined 4-0 last weekend while helping the 58th-ranked Rebels earn two league victories. In Friday's match vs. New Mexico, he teamed with Mehdi Bouras for a doubles win at the top of the lineup to clinch the team's first point and then rallied in singles play to defeat Carl Ho 3-6, 7-6, 6-3 at the second position to give his team a 4-3 win. On Saturday, Barlocchi stayed perfect on the weekend by recording two more victories against Air Force during what was his final regular-season appearance at the Fertitta Tennis Complex.

The two singles wins gave him 75 for his career, which moved him all alone into ninth place on UNLV's all-time list.

The Rebels (12-8 overall/2-1 MWC) travel to Utah for two matches this week, starting with Utah on Friday in Salt Lake City. UNLV finished 12-5 at home during the regular season but will play at Fertitta at least once more when they host the MWC tournament from April 28-May 1.

This week's MWC women's award was shared by San Diego State's Julia Trunk and UNLV's Jana Albers, marking the first time that a player from both the Rebel men's and women's teams won the honor in the same week since Feb. 6, 2008, when Elliot Wronski and Elena Gantcheva were chosen.