Jan. 5, 2012

LAS VEGAS - The UNLV women's tennis team will begin the season ranked 36th in the nation as the year's first Campbell/ITA College Tennis Rankings were released this week.

The Lady Rebels finished last season ranked 38th after posting a 20-6 overall mark that included a perfect 8-0 run through Mountain West regular-season play and their fifth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Championships.

Two players are part of the latest individual rankings as sophomore Aleksandra Josifoska moved up 30 spots from the September rankings to No. 87 after a 10-5 fall tournament effort that included four victories over ranked opponents. Fellow sophomore Lucia Batta came in at No. 121 in singles.

Regionally, Josifoska is No. 1, Batta No. 3 and junior Nives Pavlovic is at No. 7. Also, Josifoska and Batta make up the No. 6 doubles team in the Mountain Region, which includes schools in Idaho, Utah, Montana, New Mexico, Wyoming, Nevada, and select programs from Colorado and Arizona.

UNLV will return to action when it hosts the 10th Annual Freeman Memorial Tennis Championships Jan. 13-15 at the Fertitta Tennis Complex.