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Mountain West Conference Sends Five Teams to NCAA Tennis Championships
UNLV to represent MWC in men's bracket, four teams enter women's field
May 2, 2007 COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The UNLV men's and BYU women's tennis teams will represent the Mountain West Conference in the 2007 NCAA Men's and Women's Tennis Championships after earning the league's automatic bids by winning their respective titles at the MWC Championships last week in Colorado Springs, Colo. The MWC will also send three additional teams to the NCAA Women's Tennis Championship as San Diego State, TCU and UNLV each received at-large team bids. The NCAA also announced the individual singles and doubles entrants for the NCAA Men's and Women's Tennis Championships, and 10 MWC student-athletes were among the field, representing five member institutions. The 66th-ranked UNLV men's team will face ninth-ranked host UCLA in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament to be played in Los Angeles, Calif. The Rebels (13-13) and the Bruins (19-3) will square off Friday, May 11, at 1 p.m. PT, while Virginia Commonwealth (18-8) takes on Texas Tech (13-9). This marks the Rebels' seventh all-time trip to the NCAA Championships. The 28th-ranked BYU (21-6) women's team will play 41st-ranked Oregon (12-11) on Friday, May 11, in Palo Alto, Calif., in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. The winner gets a second-round match with top-ranked host Stanford (20-1), who opens against 58th-ranked Sacramento State (17-6). The Cougars are making their fourth consecutive NCAA appearance and 18th overall. Elsewhere, TCU (17-10) faces Texas A&M (20-6) in first-round women's action, while San Diego State (14-11) battles Florida State (15-7) and UNLV (19-7) takes on Arizona State (12-9). The 38th-ranked Frogs, making their fourth consecutive and 10th overall NCAA appearance, will take on No. 26 Texas A&M on Saturday, May 12, in Waco, Texas. No. 13 Baylor (22-6) will meet Oral Roberts (12-8) in the other first-round contest in Waco. The 49th-ranked Aztecs will make their third straight and 20th overall appearance in the NCAA Tournament, squaring off against No. 17 Florida State on Saturday, May 12, at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. Meanwhile, host UCLA (16-7) takes on Quinnipiac (11-6). The 46th-ranked Lady Rebels will travel to Berkeley, Calif., to face 18th-ranked Arizona State on Saturday, May 12. The winner of that match will take on the winner of 10th-ranked host California (19-6) vs. 74th-ranked Southeastern Louisiana (14-8). This marks the fourth NCAA appearance in six years for the Lady Rebels. Individually, San Diego State's Markus Dickhardt and TCU's Ana Cetnik earned automatic bids in men's and women's singles, respectively, while doubles automatic qualifiers for the men and women included SDSU's Dickhardt and Christian Groh and TCU's Cetnik and Anna Sydorska. Utah's Zach Granger earned an at-large birth for men's singles, as did UNLV's duo of Elena Gantcheva and Kristina Nedeltcheva for women's doubles. BYU's Jenny Miccoli and Anastasia Surkova were selected as an alternate women's doubles team and UNLV's Elliott Wronski was chosen as an alternate in men's singles. The 2007 NCAA singles and doubles competition will take place May 23-28 in Athens, Ga., at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex, following the conclusion of the team championships.
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