WOMEN'S TENNIS TO MEET ARIZONA STATE IN FIRST ROUND OF NCAA TOURNAMENT

4/29/2008

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

The Hornets (21-6), who earned an automatic berth into the tournament by virtue of winning the Big Sky Conference title for the seventh straight season, will travel to Fresno, Calif., to  face Arizona State on Friday, May 9, at 10 a.m. The Sun Devils enter with a 14-7 overall record and are making their 23rd consecutive appearance.

The other first-round matchup features 16th-seeded Fresno State against Lamar on Friday at 1 p.m.. The winner of the two matches will play each other in the second round on Saturday, May 10, at 1 p.m. All matches will take place at the Spalding G. Wathen Tennis Center on the Fresno State campus.

Sacramento State, which is currently ranked 53rd in the nation, defeated Northern Arizona, 4-0, in last Sunday’s Big Sky Tournament championship match. The Hornets have won 10 of their last 12 matches with the only two losses coming at No. 3 Stanford and then-No. 6 Cal. Sacramento State is 2-7 against ranked opposition this year (the ITA ranks the top 75 teams) with every match but one coming on the road. However, the team is 2-2 against team's ranked between 20th or below with wins over Washington and Saint Mary's (Arizona State is currently ranked 21st).

The Hornets have dominated the Big Sky Conference over the last seven years, winning 52 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, 2007), 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).