ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (UNLVRebels.com) - UNLV won two of three singles matches during Wednesday's first round of action at the 2016 USTA/ITA Mountain Region Championships being played at New Mexico's McKinnon Family Tennis Stadium and the Linda Estes Tennis Complex.

Paola Artiga, seeded 17-32, won her match against Cassie Chung of host New Mexico, 7-6, 6-1, and Mercedes Lopez breezed past Demi Perkinson of BYU 6-1, 6-0.

Four Rebels enjoyed first-day byes in singles, including top-seeded Carol Yang and seventh-seeded Aiwen Zhu. The foursome will open play in the Round of 64 in the first of two rounds of singles scheduled for Thursday.

In doubles play Wednesday, two UNLV duos had byes while Lopez and Cristina Moroi dropped their match against Denver's Arisha Ladhani and Sonja Radosevic 8-4. There will be one round of doubles on Thursday.

Members from 16 western teams are facing off as individuals through Sunday each day in both singles and doubles. This is one of 24 USTA/ITA Regional Championships for NCAA Division I men and women taking place over these middle two weekends of October at campuses throughout the country. The singles and doubles champions will advance to the 2016 USTA/ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, taking place November 3-6, at the indoor facilities at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, located in Flushing, N.Y.

ITA MOUNTAIN REGION WOMEN'S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPSUNLV RESULTSAlbuquerque, NMOct. 12, 2016
MAIN DRAWFirst Round Singles (Round of 128) (17-32) Paola Artiga (UNLV) def. Cassie Chung (UNM) 7-6, 6-1Mercedes Lopez Velez (UNLV) def. Demi Perkinson (BYU) 6-1, 6-0Ruth Copas (UNM) def. Cristina Moroi (UNLV) 6-4, 6-4(1) #103 Carol Yang (UNLV) BYE(7) Aiwen Zhu (UNLV) BYE(13) Anna Bogoslavets (UNLV) BYE(17-32) Jovana Kenic (UNLV) BYE
First Round Doubles  (Round of 64)Arisha Ladhani/Sonja Radosevic (DU) def. Cristina Moroi/Mercedes Lopez (UNLV) 8-4(4) Carol Yang/Aiwen Zhu (UNLV) BYE(9-16) Paola Artiga/Jovana Kenic (UNLV) BYE