LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) – UNLV will send two players to the NCAA Singles Championship for the first time in nearly three decades after both Rebels won their semifinal match at the 2025 ITA Mountain Region Men's Tennis Championships on campus Monday at the Fertitta Tennis Complex.
 
Super soph Ilia Snitari, ranked 83rd nationally and seeded first in this event, improved to 10-0 this fall with a 6-4, 6-4 win over 13^th-seeded Carson Baker of Boise State. He only lost one set during the week and is 18-0 overall at UNLV.
 
Illia Maksymchuk, an unseeded senior, had a tougher go vs. seventh-seeded Jean-Baptiste Badon of Utah State but he gutted out a 10-8 first-set tiebreaker to help him prevail 7-6 (8), 2-6, 6-3.
 
The final match was then canceled between the teammates because both singles finalists in each of the ITA Regionals being played around the nation this month earn automatic bids to the NCAA Singles Championship set for late November in Orlando.

"It's an important moment for our UNLV men's tennis program," said head coach Andy Jackson. "We are establishing UNLV as a national level program and two singles players in the NCAA tournament is a good start. Both players did a lot of hard work this summer and fall with the goal of making the NCAAs and have success in Orlando and we are proud of them!"
 
The last Rebel men's player to earn a spot in the NCAA tourney was Christopher Bulus in 2022. The only other time the UNLV men sent more than one singles player to the annual event was 1996 when Roger Pettersson and Luke Smith both earned bids. Smith would go on to win both the NCAA singles and doubles national championships just one year later.
 
ITA MEN'S TENNIS MOUNTAIN REGIONAL
Oct. 15-20, 2025
At Fertitta Tennis Complex
 
MAIN DRAW SINGLES
Semifinals
(1) #83 Ilia Snitari (UNLV) def. (13) Carson Baker (BSU) 6-4, 6-4
Illia Maksymchuk (UNLV) def. (7) Jean-Baptiste Badon (USU) 7-6 (8), 2-6, 6-3
 
Final
Canceled