Owls & Aggies Repeat NCAA Opening Assignment
4/29/2019 6:41:00 PM | Women's Tennis
NCAA Women's Tennis opening round, 9 a.m. Saturday
The names are the same, but the Rice women's tennis team will be hoping for a different outcome when the 41st ranked Owls face 18th ranked Texas A&M in the first round of the NCAA Women's Tennis Championship at the Texas Tennis Center on Austin at 9 a.m. on Saturday.
The Owls (16-7) and Aggies (22-7) met on the same courts last year in the first round the tournament, with Texas A&M holding off a furious Rice rally to post a 4-3 win.
Rice earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament after winning the Conference USA championship on April 21. This is the eighth consecutive NCAA appearance for the program, the longest active streak both at Rice and in Conference USA
No. 8 Texas will face LIU Brooklyn in the other first round match. Saturday's winners advance to the regional final at noon on Sunday. For the first time in 2019, the regional winners will move on to a Super Regional round with only eight teams advancing the NCAA Championships in Orlando, Florida.
Rice and Texas A&M have met 33 times in women's tennis since 1980, but this will mark just the third 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 and met again last year in Austin.
"We are fired up about representing Rice in the NCAA tournament again this year. A&M Is having a solid season and we are looking forward to the challenge ahead of us against them," Rice head coach Elizabeth Schmidt said.
This marks the 12th appearance overall for the Owls the Oracle and the seventh time with an automatic bid.
Rice is 6-11 in NCAA Championship action, including 6-7 mark under Schmidt. The Owls have won at least one match in five of their seven NCAA appearances under Schmidt, 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 won their sixth Conference USA Championships in the last seven years by defeating Old Dominion 4-2 at the George R. Brown Tennis Center on April 21. They have won a total of seven women's tennis titles since joining the conference in 2005-06, the most of any school in conference history.
The Owls (16-7) and Aggies (22-7) met on the same courts last year in the first round the tournament, with Texas A&M holding off a furious Rice rally to post a 4-3 win.
Rice earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament after winning the Conference USA championship on April 21. This is the eighth consecutive NCAA appearance for the program, the longest active streak both at Rice and in Conference USA
No. 8 Texas will face LIU Brooklyn in the other first round match. Saturday's winners advance to the regional final at noon on Sunday. For the first time in 2019, the regional winners will move on to a Super Regional round with only eight teams advancing the NCAA Championships in Orlando, Florida.
Rice and Texas A&M have met 33 times in women's tennis since 1980, but this will mark just the third 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 and met again last year in Austin.
"We are fired up about representing Rice in the NCAA tournament again this year. A&M Is having a solid season and we are looking forward to the challenge ahead of us against them," Rice head coach Elizabeth Schmidt said.
This marks the 12th appearance overall for the Owls the Oracle and the seventh time with an automatic bid.
Rice is 6-11 in NCAA Championship action, including 6-7 mark under Schmidt. The Owls have won at least one match in five of their seven NCAA appearances under Schmidt, 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 won their sixth Conference USA Championships in the last seven years by defeating Old Dominion 4-2 at the George R. Brown Tennis Center on April 21. They have won a total of seven women's tennis titles since joining the conference in 2005-06, the most of any school in conference history.
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