May 12, 2011

LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - UNLV's women's tennis picked up a pair of individual awards on Thursday as the Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced its annual regional honors.

Women's head coach Kevin Cory was voted the ITA Mountain Region Coach of the Year while one of his freshman standouts, Lucia Batta, was named the regional Rookie of the Year. The awards were voted on by committees made up of head coaches in each respective region. The ITA Mountain Region includes NCAA Division One schools from the states of Idaho, Utah, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming as well as some schools in Colorado and Arizona.

In his 12th season at the helm, Cory led the Lady Rebels to a regular-season Mountain West Conference championship at 8-0 and the program hit the 20-win mark for the third straight season for the first time in program history. UNLV, 20-5, also earned a spot in its fifth consecutive NCAA Championship field and heads to Los Angeles for Saturday's first round vs. San Diego. This is the second ITA regional award for Cory at UNLV as he was also named the West Region Coach of the Year in 2002. The only other time a UNLV women's coach won the honor was in 1997 when Ola Malmqvist took home the award.

Batta, out of Budapest, Hungary, is just the second Lady Rebel to be named her region's top rookie, following three-time All-American Marianne Vallin in 1994 as part of the West Region. Batta was also tabbed the MWC Freshman of the Year after taking over the team's No. 1 spot in singles and producing a 25-11 overall record and rising to as high as No. 41 in the nation in the ITA Rankings. She was also named All-MWC in both singles and doubles this spring.