LAS VEGAS - March 3, 2010 - Two teams of students from UNLV's Sanford I. Berman Debate Team were among the top performers at this weekend's district qualifying tournament in Southern California, making them eligible to participate in the National Debate Tournament March 19-23 at the University of California, Berkeley.

This marks the first time in the program's brief three-year history that two UNLV teams have qualified for the national tournament.

"This is the culmination of three years of tireless work by the students and coaches and a testament to the caliber of students we're recruiting to UNLV," said Jacob Thompson, director of UNLV's debate program.

Competitive debate at UNLV consists of two-person teams that argue both for and against a policy related topic in what is known as a "switch-side" format. The process is research intensive and the arguments are delivered both fast and furiously.

Team members Allyssa Lucas-Bolin and Michael Eisenstadt, and Stefan Meneses and Christian Bato advanced to the national tournament by finishing among the top seven teams at the District I qualifier at Pepperdine University. UNLV competes in a district with universities from California, Arizona and Nevada.

"The national tournament is debate's equivalent of basketball's NCAA tournament," said Eisenstadt, a UNLV junior who competed in last year's national tournament. "The battle to get to the national tournament is intense, but succeeding there is the ultimate goal because we've worked so hard as a team all year to get this opportunity."

UNLV is currently ranked 32nd nationally by the National Debate Tournament, one of the two major governing bodies for college debate. The university will field two of the 72 teams to compete at the national tournament.