Owls Earn Seventh Consecutive NCAA Berth
5/1/2018 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
NCAA Women's Tennis Bracket / NCAA Regional Notes
by Chuck Pool (cpool@rice.edu) -
The Rice women's tennis team has qualified for the NCAA Championship for the seventh consecutive year, earning an at-large berth in the 64-team field which was announced by the NCAA on Tuesday.
Rice (15-8) was assigned to the Austin Regional and will take on second seeded Texas A&M (16-10) in the opening round of action at 10 a.m. on Friday, May 11 at the Texas Tennis Center. Top seed Texas (22-4) will take on McNeese (18-3) at 1 p.m. with the winners advancing to the regional title match at noon on Saturday, May 12.
Rice and Texas A&M have met 32 times in women's tennis since 1980, but this will mark just the second time the schools have faced each other in the NCAA tournament. The Aggies downed host Rice 5-3 in the 1997 regional held at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium. Rice defeated Texas A&M 4-3 earlier this season at the George R. Brown Tennis Center.
"The team is really excited to compete in the NCAA tournament, Rice head coach Elizabeth Schmidt said. "We look forward to getting back out on the competition court and representing Rice in the national tournament.
"With our regional site having four schools from this area, we are obviously very familiar with the other the teams. We are looking forward to what should be a really high-level and competitive first round match with the Aggies," Schmidt added.
This marks the 11th appearance overall for the Owls, who are currently ranked 41st in the Oracle]/ITA computer rankings, and the fourth time in school history they have made the field as an at-large selection. The Owls were at-large picks in 1996, 1997 and 1998 and then again in 2012.
Rice is 6-10 in NCAA Championship action, including 6-6 mark under Schmidt. The Owls have won at least one match in five of their six NCAA appearances, highlighted by a pair of wins in 2012 at the Oxford Regional to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history.
The Owls saw their streak of five consecutive Conference USA Championships end on April 22 when FIU downed the Owls 4-3 in Norfolk, Virginia. The Panthers are the third seed in the Miami Regional and will face UCF in their opener.
