Owls Set to Meet Washington in Waco
5/4/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
May 4, 2010
Ron Smarr's Rice Owls (14-10) will face the Washington Huskies (17-5) in the first round of the 2010 NCAA Men's Tennis Championship at 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 15 at the Baylor Tennis Center in Waco. Baylor (21-6), the seventh seed in the tournament, will host Oral Roberts (7-8) at noon in the other first round match in Waco.
Rice will carry a #33 ranking into their eighth consecutive NCAA Championship and will be meeting the 25th ranked Huskies for the first time since 2004 when the Owls took a 4-3 decision at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium. Rice leads the overall series, 2-1.
The Owls lost their opening round match to LSU in last season's NCAA Championships, but have advanced past the first round in four of their last seven trips under Smarr. Their best finish in recent history came in 2004 when they advanced to the Round of 16. That year, they earned their berth in the tournament by capturing the WAC Championship and earned their bid in this year's event by ending Tulsa's four-year run as Conference USA Champions.
This is Rice's first trip to Waco for an NCAA opening round, but it will mark the sixth time in their eight consecutive appearances that they will opened NCAA play in the state of Texas (Texas in 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2008, Texas A&M in 2007).
The winner of the first and second round games at Baylor will advance to the NCAA Round of 16 at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, which will get underway on May 21.
The NCAA will announce individual qualifiers in both singles and doubles competition on Wednesday.