WOMEN’S TENNIS TRAVELS TO STANFORD FOR FIRST-ROUND NCAA TOURNAMENT MATCHUP

5/1/2007

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento State women’s tennis team will make its sixth straight NCAA Tournament appearance, it was announced by the NCAA selection committee today.

The Hornets (17-6), who earned an automatic berth into the tournament by virtue of winning the Big Sky Conference title for the sixth straight season, will travel to top-ranked Stanford and face the Cardinal on Friday, May 11, at 1 p.m. Stanford (20-1) is the three-time defending NCAA Tournament national champion and will carry an 18-match tournament winning streak into this year’s Big Dance.

The other first-round matchup at Stanford will include 28th-ranked BYU (21-6) facing 41st-ranked Oregon (12-11) on Friday at 10 a.m. The winner of the two matches will play each other in the second round on Saturday, May 12, at noon. All matches will take place at the Taube Family Tennis Center on the Stanford campus.

Sacramento State, which is currently ranked 58th in the nation, defeated Northern Arizona, 4-0, in last Sunday’s Big Sky Tournament championship match. The Hornets have won five straight and nine of their last 11 matches. Sacramento State is 2-6 against ranked opposition this year (the ITA ranks the top 75 teams) with every match coming on the road. Five of those six losses were tight, coming via 4-3 or 5-2 defeats. One of the team’s victories against a ranked team came by a 4-3 score at Oregon on Feb. 4.

The Hornets have dominated the Big Sky Conference over the last six years, winning 42 straight matches against league opposition during that span. However, Sacramento State continues to face some of the nation’s toughest competition in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Other NCAA first-round matchups for the Hornets have included Stanford (2002), USC (2003), Fresno State (2004, 2006) and BYU (2005). All but one of those matches came against the team that hosted the regional (the match against Fresno State in 2004 was played in Berkeley).

Stanford, which just won the Pacific-10 Conference championship, has won 95 straight regular season matches at home.