The Franciscan University Women's Tennis team will face North Central (IL), Conference Champion of the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) in the first round of the NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championship on Thursday May 12th. The match will be hosted by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. All match start times are still to be determined.
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The 49-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 Middlebury in the Second Round on Friday May13th at the same location.
Franciscan is making their 6th trip to the NCAA Tournament in their history.They have won seven conference Championships in their 12 years of NCAA Division III competition, including back to back PAC Championships. This is the Lady Barons 6th straight conference title, as they won the AMCCÂ each year from 2016-2019. The Lady Barons are still in search of their first NCAA Tournament win.
We are extremely excited to represent the President's Athletic Conference in this year's NCAA tournament. The ladies have been practicing hard in preparation for our first round match. Playing at this level is a blessing and we are excited to see what the Lord has for us as we seek to use our athletic ability in order to serve him. We know we will face the best competition that the NCAA has to offer. That in and of itself brings great excitement to our team. This will be the first time we have been this close to home. We are looking forward to having parents and friends around us to share in this opportunity.
--Head Coach Scott Greve
This year's Lady Barons team held a 15-4 record, including a 7-0 PAC record in route to the PAC title last fall. The Lady Barons also swept the PAC Major Awards, as
Olivia Colby earned Newcomer of the Year,
Maria Herrera was Player of the Year, and Head Coach
Scott Greve won Coach of the Year. Franciscan was able to play six matches this semester with five of them coming on the Spring Break trip to Orlando, Florida. The Lady Barons will be well rested and prepared, as they have not played an official match since March 25th at Wittenberg.
After earning the CCIW automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season, the North Central College women's tennis team (21-5) enters the postseason ranked 4th in the NCAA Region VI Rankings. Kaeli Smashey (14-6 at No. 1 singles) is ranked fifth-best singles player in the region. The team of Alaina Kathaphixay and Hannah Hougland (19-6 at No. 1 doubles) are the fourth-best tandem in Region VI.
The teams will play a single-elimination tournament with the first, second- and third-rounds played at regional sites, Friday-Sunday, May 13-15, or Thursday-Saturday, May 12-14. The United States Tennis Association, Oglethorpe University and the Greater Orlando Sports Commission will host the team championships finals, which will be held May 23-25 at USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida.
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