Terriers To Meet Kentucky In NCAA Women's Tennis
May 3, 2002 | Women's Tennis
The Terrier women's tennis team will make its fourth straight appearance in the NCAA Division 1 Women's Tennis Tournament next Friday (May 10th) when it travels to Lexington, KY to meet 14th seeded University of Kentucky in one of 32 first-round matches that will be played around the county next weekend.
In the other first-round match at Kentucky, Georgia Tech will meet the University of Michigan. The two winners will then play on Saturday in the regional final for a trip to the Sweet 16 at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA.
Ironically, last year, the Terriers traveled to Stanford to play the Cardinal in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. It was the third straight year B.U. drew a top-ranked California team in the first round of the NCAAs. In 1999, the Terriers, making their first appearance as a team in the national championship tournament, journeyed to Malibu to play Pepperdine. The following year, they drew UCLA in the opening round and last year they were in Palo Alto.
"We are excited to be playing Kentucky," said Terrier head coach Lesley Sheehan. "It's always a great honor to be invited to the NCAAs, and we are happy to be playing a team we have never played before.
"I am also happy that we won't be traveling cross country," the coach went on. "Our players will be taking final exams during the week, and it will be nice to get on a plane and stay in the same time zone."
The Terriers earned the bid to the NCAA Tournament by virtue of winning the 2002 America East team title last weekend (April 26-28). In the semifinals, the team blanked Vermont, 7-0, on Saturday (April 27th) and came back with a 4-0 win over Stony Brook the next day.
"It was the first time we had ever played Stony Brook," said Sheehan, who guided the Terriers to their eighth straight America East team title and their 12th since 1989. "They had some very good players and it was a tough match."
With the win, the Terriers improved their overall record to 12-10.
In the meantime, Kentucky comes into the tournament with an overall record of 16-8. In its most recent outing, the team lost to the University of Florida, 4-1, in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament. Florida is the nation's top-ranked women's tennis team and will enter the NCAA Tournament with a 19-1 record.
On the other half of the bracket, Georgia Tech is 14-9, while Michigan is 14-10.
