Women's Tennis | 5/10/2021 12:40:00 PM

INDIANAPOLIS - The Franciscan University women's tennis team will face The College of New Jersey, Conference Champion of the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) in the first round of the NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championship on Friday May 14th. The match will be hosted by Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.

The 42-team bracket for the Division III Women's Tennis Championship was announced by the NCAA on Monday morning through a press release. The winner of this matchup will go on to face host institution and winner of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, Washington & Lee in the second round. 

Franciscan is making their 5th trip to the NCAA Tournament in their history. They won the AMCC Championship in 2019, but the 2020 Spring NCAA Championships were canceled due to COVID-19. This is the Lady Barons 5th straight conference title, as they won the AMCC each year from 2016-2019. In their previous five matchups in the NCAA Tournament, they have lost 0-5 each time. 

This year's Lady Barons team had an impressive season, as they went 8-3 with a 6-1 record in PAC play. Two of their three losses came in non-conference play to Carnegie Mellon and Case Western. Carnegie Mellon earned an at large bid with their conference, University Athletic Association, not hosting conference play this year. Mention Franciscan's #1 doubles duo of Maria Herrera and Ana Victoria Haddad had a very strong season, as they went 8-3 with a 5-1 conference record. Caroline Picard and Zoey Stapleton each had impressive singles records, both with undefeated records against conference foes. 

The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) held a 10-0 record this year in route to winning their 38th straight conference championship. That is the longest active conference championship winning streak across any sport in all three NCAA Divisions. The Lions did not drop a point all season, as they won 9-0 in all of conference play and won a pair of non-conference matchups. One of their non-conference wins was against Division I Coppin State.  As of May 9th, they were the 11th ranked team in the Northeast Region. 

The NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Committee has selected the 42 teams that will compete in the 2021 NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championships. Student-athletes selected to the individual championships will be announced Wednesday, May 12.

The teams will play a single-elimination tournament with the first, second- and third-rounds played at predetermined sites, Friday-Sunday, May 14-16, or Thursday-Saturday, May 13-15.  The University of the South and the Chattanooga Sports Commission will host the team championships finals, which will be held May 24-26 at Champions Tennis Club in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

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