Rice Tennis Teams Learn Postseason Plans on Tuesday
5/3/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
May 3, 2010
The Rice men's and women's tennis teams will end a week's worth of waiting on Tuesday when the Division I Men's and Women's Tennis Committee announces the brackets for the 2010 NCAA Tennis Championships during live on ESPN News between 4-5 p.m.
The men's team will gather at Buffalo Wild Wings in the Rice Village to watch the selection show. Media and fans are invited to join the teams for the announcement. The Rice women's team will gather in private to watch the show.
The Rice men's team holds an automatic berth in the 2010 event, thanks to their winning the Conference USA title at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium on April 25. The Owls will take a 14-10 record into their eighth consecutive NCAA Championship appearance.
The Owls women's team (14-9), is on the bubble, holding a #48 the past two weeks, but Head Coach Elizabeth Schmidt believes her team has a chance to earn the school's fifth appearance in the women's championship. Rice earned its first appearance in 2006 when the Owls captured the C-USA crown.
"We have some quality wins over some very good opponents this year, and our team is primed for the chance to prove how worthy we are for a bid. So much of it depends on how some the upsets that happened in a few conference tournaments will impact the final rankings. We will have to wait and see what the final decision will be," Schmidt added.
Schmidt's team owns six wins over ranked opponents, including a pair of wins over teams ranked in the top 30. Eight of their nine losses were to ranked opponents, with seven of those losses coming on the road.
First round action in the NCAA team competition will be held from May 14-16 at campus sites. The final 16 teams will then advance to the NCAA Tennis Championships at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia