Ranked Tennis Teams in Action This Weekend

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Women’s Tennis

No. 43 USF Takes on No. 19 Texas in First Round of NCAA Championships

TAMPA, Fla. – The University of South Florida women’s tennis team has earned an at-large bid into the 2008 NCAA Women’s Tennis Championship and will take on No. 19 Texas (18-6, 10-1) in the opening round of the 64-team event on Friday, May 9 in Tallahassee, Fla. The first serve is set for 2 p.m.

Texas features No. 63 Vanja Corovic at the top singles spot. The sophomore from Belgrade, Serbia is 17-7 in dual-match competition while playing at the Nos. 1 and 2 positions.

Host Florida State earned an at-large berth into the field of 64 and will take on Ohio Valley Conference Champion Samford, also on Friday, May 9. The winners of the two matches will meet in the NCAA round of 32 on Saturday, May 10, and the winner of that match advances to the NCAA round of 16 on Thursday, May 15 in Tulsa, Okla.

The No. 43 Bulls totaled an 18-6 regular season mark and finished second in the BIG EAST Conference. USF reached the finals of the BIG EAST Championships on Sunday, April 20 and fell to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 4-1in Tampa, Fla. 

“This is a good change for us going to a different site this year,” said USF head coach Agustin Moreno, whose team competed in the Gainesville regional the past three years. “We ended the year playing very well and we are going to run into some very tough teams up in Tallahassee.”

This is the eighth trip to the NCAA Championships for USF who made it to the round of 32 in 2007 by defeating the Florida International Golden Panthers before falling to the Florida Gators in the second round. 

The Bulls are led by freshman sensation Janette Bejlkova who is No. 72 in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings. Bejlkova is 17-0 in dual match competition with victories over three ranked opponents. In the BIG EAST Championships, Bejlkova was up 6-4 on No. 56 Kelcy Tefft and on her way to her second victory of the year over the Notre Dame No. 1 singles player before the match went unfinished.

The No. 15 Seminoles (18-7) earned an at-large bid after reaching the finals of the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship. The Seminoles boasts three ranked singles players in No. 29 Katie Rybakova, No. 75 Lauren Macfarlane and No. 89 Carolin Walter.

Samford (20-4) earned an automatic bid into the field of 64 after defeating Eastern Kentucky in the Ohio Valley Conference championship match on April 20.

First- and second-round competition will be conducted May 9-11 with the winner of each site advancing to the NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Championships at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, hosted by the University of Tulsa.  The team championship will be held May 15-26.

The teams will play a single-elimination tournament at 16 first- and second-round sites (four teams at each site) and the finals site (16-team bracket) to determine the national champion.  The matches shall be regulation dual matches with three (3) eight-game, pro-set doubles played for one team point, followed by six (6) singles matches, each valued at one team point, played best of three sets.  Regular scoring will be used and a 12-point tiebreaker will be played at eight games all in doubles and at six games all in singles.

Thirty-one conferences receive automatic qualification into the 2008 NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Championships while 33 schools receive an at-large bid.

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Men's Tennis

Bulls Square off Against Hurricanes

TAMPA, Fla. – The No. 42 University of South Florida men’s tennis team will face No. 19 University of Miami Hurricanes in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Championships on Sat., May 10, at 1 p.m. on the campus of the University of Florida at the Ring Tennis Complex in Gainesville, Fla.

This is the first appearance for the Bulls in the NCAA Championships since 2003.

The Bulls (14-6) are coming off a runner-up finish to Notre Dame at the BIG EAST Championships and are currently ranked No. 42 in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association poll.

USF will face a familiar foe in the University of Miami (16-7) in the first round of the championships who are making their third-straight appearance in the NCAAs. The two Florida schools were originally slated to face off in Coral Gables earlier in the season but the match was cancelled due to rain. In 2007, Miami defeated USF 5-2 at the USF Varsity Tennis Courts. The Canes are currently ranked No. 19 in the ITA. 

“This is an in-state rivalry which means you can throw the rankings out the window,” said USF head coach Don Barr. “Miami is a tough team but our guys have been playing really good tennis as of late. It should turn out to be a great match.”

To fill out the rest of the Gainesville bracket, the host Gators (15-7), seeded 10th in the NCAA Tournament and ranked ninth in the latest ITA poll, will take on Navy (20-8) at 10 a.m. on Saturday, with the winners of both first-round matches meeting in NCAA second-round action on Sun., May 11, at 1 p.m.

The Bulls are led by their talented freshman, Lucas Jovita who is ranked No. 84 in the latest ITA rankings. Jovita is 14-5 in dual match competition on the season, playing primarily at the No. 1 spot and holds victories over four ranked opponents.

First- and second-round competition will be conducted Friday-Saturday or Saturday-Sunday, May 9-10 or 10-11, with the winner of each site advancing to the NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championships at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, hosted by the University of Tulsa.  The team championship will be held May 16-20. 

The teams will play a single-elimination tournament at 16 first- and second-round sites (four teams at each site) and the finals site (16-team bracket) to determine the national champion.  The matches shall be regulation dual matches with three (3) eight-game, pro-set doubles played for one team point, followed by six (6) singles matches, each valued at one team point, played best of three sets.  Regular scoring will be used and a 12-point tiebreaker will be played at eight games all in doubles and at six games all in singles.

Thirty-one conferences receive automatic qualification into the 2008 NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championships.