May 17, 2010
LAS VEGAS - UNLV women's tennis standout Kristina Nedeltcheva and Lady Rebel assistant coach Mark Roberts have both earned regional awards from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, which is the sport's governing body.
Nedeltcheva, who just led UNLV to its first NCAA tournament victory since 1998 last Friday, was named ITA Mountain Region Senior Player of the Year after a vote by a committee made up of head coaches. She joins only UNLV three-time All-American Marianne Vallin (1997) in having earned the honor.
Currently ranked 45th in the nation in singles, Nedeltcheva stands 28-9 in singles and 25-10 in doubles. She is only the second Lady Rebel to be named first team all-conference in both singles and doubles all four years on campus and posted a school-record 98 career doubles wins. Later this month, Nedeltcheva will become only the third UNLV woman in history to be part of at least three career individual national championship fields as the senior earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Division I Singles Championship in Athens, Ga. The native of Sofia, Bulgaria, will be playing in her first singles event after two previous trips to the doubles championship in 2007 and 2008.
"It's great seeing Kristina honored after such a sterling career here," said UNLV head coach Kevin Cory. "For her to be voted the top senior speaks volumes about the kind of season she and our entire team had this year."
Roberts, who just completed his second season as a member of Cory's staff, was named ITA Mountain Region Assistant Coach of the Year. He is the third representative of the program to earn the honor, following Douglas Geiwald in 1997 and current UNLV men's head coach Owen Hambrook when he assisted with the women's team in 2002.
"We are so proud of Mark, who is very deserving of this honor," said Cory. "He is one of the top assistants in college tennis and we feel fortunate to have him at UNLV."
Roberts, who came to UNLV after serving as a teaching pro at the Upper St. Clair Tennis Development Program in Pittsburgh, is a 2004 graduate of New Mexico State. He played No. 1 singles and doubles for the Aggies after transferring from Boise State, where he competed for three seasons and rose as high as 74th in singles and 23rd in doubles. A native of South Africa, he previously competed on the ATP Tour and earned world rankings as high as 974 in singles and 1,272 in doubles in 2001.
