Owls Face TCU in First Round of NCAA Championships
5/3/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
May 3, 2006
2006 NCAA Championship Bracket
HOUSTON -- With their Conference USA crown and the league's automatic bid, the Rice women will head to Fort Worth to face 16th-seeded TCU on May 12 in the opening round of the 2006 NCAA championships, the NCAA announced Wednesday.
The regional site in Fort Worth marks a reunion of sorts because joining the Owls and the Horned Frogs are former Southwest Conference opponents Texas and Arkansas.
The NCAA appearance will be the Owls' first since 1998. The Rice women also competed in 1996 and 1997 and received a late bid in 1999 that they declined.
The Owls are 13-12 this year and ranked 65th nationally after a demanding schedule that saw them face 10 teams that also received bids to the NCAA championships. Of those 10 matches, nine were played on the road and six of those teams are currently ranked in the top 20.
Senior Blair DiSesa, the 2006 C-USA player of the year, leads the Owls with her 24-14 record. She and classmate Medeja Egic led the seventh-seeded Owls to four straight wins, including upsets of the top three seeds, to win the programs first league title on April 23.
The Horned Frogs are the 2006 Mountain West Conference champions and posted a 21-6 record this year to rank 16th nationally. The pairing will mark the 24th-straight year for the former SWC and Western Athletics Conference foes to face one another.
A first-round upset would send the Owls to face the winner of the Texas-Arkansas clash. The Longhorns finished second in the Big 12 Conference with their 17-10 mark. They are currently ranked 18th. Rice and Texas have not faced off in women's tennis since the 1996 SWC championship tournament. The Lady Razorbacks are currently ranked 48th with their 10-10 record and last played the Owls in 2003.
A pair of wins at the regional site in Fort would send the Owls to Palo Alto, Calif., for the sweet 16. Stanford hosts the 2006 NCAA Men's and Women's Tennis Championships, both team and individual, May 20-29. The bracket for the singles and doubles championships will be announced on Thursday.
Players Mentioned
