Tuesday, 05/03/2011

The Nebraska women’s tennis team has qualified to participate in the 2011 NCAA Women’s Tennis Championships beginning on May 13. The Huskers will face Tulsa (25-2) for the first round in Ann Arbor, Mich. This marks the second straight season NU has qualified for the tournament. Nebraska faced Tulsa previously this season on March 23, falling by a score of 1-6 to the Golden Hurricane.

The first and second rounds of competition will take place on May 13-15. The winner of each site will advance to the final 16-team tournament at the Taube Tennis Center in Stanford, Calif. The final team championships will take place May 19-30.

No. 22 Tulsa boasts a record of 25-2 this season and earned an automatic NCAA championship qualification after winning the Conference-USA title on April 24. Their victory marked the fourth C-USA title in five years for the Golden Hurricane.

The winner of the Nebraska-Tulsa matchup will move on to the second round, where they will face the winner of Akron (20-4) and No. 10 Michigan (22-4). The winner of the second round match will move on to Stanford to compete in the final 16-team bracket.

No. 44 Nebraska posted a 20-7 record this season, including a 7-4 mark in their final Big 12 campaign. Their 20 wins are the second most in a single season in school history.

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 teams received automatic bids as winners of their conferences, while another 33, including Nebraska, were selected on an at-large basis.