June 7, 2010
LAS VEGAS - The UNLV women's tennis team moved up six spots to finish in the nation's top 30 for the first time in eight seasons as the final Campbell/ITA College Tennis Rankings were released Monday.
The Lady Rebels (22-5), who set a program record for highest winning percentage during the regular season (.869), finished 30th overall, marking just the fourth top-30 finish in school history (20th in 2002, 23rd in 1997 and 28th in 1998).
UNLV also finished ranked first in its ITA region for the first time in history.
Individually, departing star Kristina Nedeltcheva (28-9) finished ranked 51st nationally in singles and third in the Mountain Region.
Junior Jana Albers (22-14) finished ranked 109th in the nation and eighth in the region. Also ranked regionally in singles was freshman Nives Pavlovic (24-13) at No. 18.
In doubles, Nedeltcheva and Albers (23-9) moved up a whopping 22 spots to close at a season-best 40th in the nation and third in the region.
Also showing up regionally in doubles was the team of senior Aliska Razina and junior Anna Maskaljun (25-6). Ranked as high as 43rd in the nation during the season, they closed out 2009-10 at 10th in the region.
"This is great recognition for UNLV and our tennis program," said head coach Kevin Cory. "Finishing in the top 30 nationally and ranked No. 1 in the region, where the majority of our conference competes, clearly shows what a great job our players did this season.
"I'm also proud to say that we'll finish as an ITA Academic All-America Team for the third straight season, so I can't say enough about the effort the girls gave this year."
