Wolverines Receive NCAA Bid for Fourth Straight Year
5/4/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- The No. 32 University of Michigan women's tennis team received a bid to the 2005 NCAA Division I Championship field announced today (Wednesday, May 4) by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. This is the fourth consecutive season that U-M has received an at-large selection to the 64-team field, and in the process the Wolverines gained their seventh overall appearance in the national tournament (1996-98, 2002-05).
"It feels great to make the tournament," said head coach Bitsy Ritt. "This was our ultimate goal. There were definitely some highs and lows throughout the season. We certainly played a difficult non-conference schedule, and we had a lot of opportunities where we fell short in some matches. Going into the Big Ten schedule, we didn't really have the strong non-conference wins that I thought we needed. Forutanately we came on strong in the last week of the season, and the two victories against ranked opponents in the Big Ten Championship really helped us. We had a strong win over Alabama in January and another good win over Maryland in February."
The Wolverines (14-11) will head to Chapel Hill, N.C., to face No. 15 Duke in first-round action on Friday, May 13 (2 p.m.) at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center. With a victory against the Blue Devils, the Wolverines would face the winner of No. 13 and host North Carolina and Richmond on Saturday, May 14 (11 a.m.). Michigan last met Duke during the 1998-99 season, when the then No. 2-ranked Blue Devils earned a 9-0 shutout at the Varsity Tennis Center (March 6). The Wolverines are 1-4 all-time against Duke.
"It looks like a very strong bracket," said Ritt. "North Carolina is the No. 1 seed. I actually thought that Duke might be the No. 1 seed and that we could potentially be a low No. 2 seed. As it turns out, Duke is the No. 2 seed and we're the third seed. It's a tough bracket and we look forward to playing Duke. We haven't seen them in several years and it's a great opportunity for us."
The regional winner advances to the 16-team NCAA Championship field which will compete for the national title May 19-22 at the University of Georgia's Dan Macgill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.
Michigan is fresh off a runner-up finish at the 2005 Big Ten Conference Championship, held last week (April 28-May 1) in East Lansing, Mich. After a first-round victory over host Michigan State, the seventh-seeded Wolverines knocked off No. 2 seed Indiana and No. 3 seed Iowa to advance to the final. U-M lost 4-1 to top seed Northwestern in the championship match, marking the seventh straight season that the Wildcats have earned the conference crown.
NCAA Regional
(Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center, Chapel Hill , N.C.)
| Friday, May 13 | #13 North Carolina (20-9) vs. Richmond (14-9), 10 a.m. |
| | #15 Duke (15-10) vs. #32 Michigan (14-11), 2 p.m. |
| Saturday, May 14 | Winners of Friday matches, 11 a.m. |
Contact: Marc Ressler (734) 763-4423
