Harvard Men, Yale Women To NCAAs

Thursday, May 01, 2008

The Ivy League champion Harvard men's tennis team will play No. 17 Texas Tech in Ann Arbor, Mich., in the first round of the 2008 NCAA tournament while Ivy women's champ Yale will face off against No. 2 seed Georgia in the first round of the NCAA Championship May 9 at 4 pm in Athens, Ga. The NCAA berth is a first for Yale, which won its first outright Ivy League Championship since 1981.

The Crimson will square off against the Red Raiders on Saturday, May 10 in a 2 p.m., matchup. The winner of the match will meet the winner of Michigan and Western Michigan on Sunday in a 2 p.m., match.

The Crimson cruised to a perfect conference record and earned an automatic bid into the draw, while the Red Raiders earned an at-large bid out of the Big 12 Conference.

This marks the first appearance in the NCAA tournament for the Crimson since 2004 when it completed a perfect league season to earn an automatic bid. The last time Harvard faced a Big 12 school in the postseason was 2002 when the Crimson dropped a 4-0 decision to Baylor. Head coach Dave Fish has led the Crimson to at least one win in its past three NCAA championship appearances.

Harvard ended the regular season with a national ranking of No. 51 and reached as high as No. 44 during the 2008 spring season.

For Yale, the first-time experience has been exciting. "You could tell we were all pretty anxious," said coach Danielle Lund McNamara of her team waiting for its placement in the NCAA Tournament. "To be going to Georgia will be so much fun. It is such a great tennis environment."

Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of South Carolina will join Yale and Georgia during the first two rounds in Athens. McNamara said the team will benefit from receiving the chance to compete against one of the nation's best.

"That's how you get better," McNamara said. "We will go in there and look to play our best tennis. Georgia is a great team. Ultimately, that's the level of tennis we look to be playing."

Sixty-four teams compete in the single elimination Division I Women's Tennis Championship. The first two rounds will be played May 9 and 10 at 16 different sites across the country. The Tournament will continue with the round of 16 May 15, the quarterfinals May 17, the semifinals May 19, and the national championship May 20 all at the University of Tulsa in Tulsa, Okla.