Winthrop Women's And Men's Tennis Teams Headed To Knoxville for NCAA Championships
Both Teams Will Face Host Tennessee In First Round Of NCAA Tennis Championships
5/4/2010
ROCK HILL, SC—The Winthrop women's and men's tennis teams will be heading to Knoxville, TN, for the first round of the 2010 NCAA Tennis Championships as both will face the University of Tennessee during the weekend of May 14-16 at the 2,000-seat Varsity Tennis Courts complex.
Head Coach Cid Carvalho's teams earned the Big South Conference's automatic bid to the tournament after capturing the league tournament two weeks ago. Winthrop's women will face the No. 13 seeded Lady Vols on Friday, May 14, while the Eagle men will tackle the No. 2 seeded Volunteers on Saturday, May 15. Start times will be announced later. Both Winthrop programs are looking for their first NCAA tournament victory.
The Lady Eagles (16-8) will be making their third straight and ninth overall appearance in the NCAA Championships. Winthrop's women head into their match with UT riding a 10-match winning streak. Tennessee also comes into the tournament with a 16-8 overall record. The other two teams in the Knoxville women's bracket are Vanderbilt (13-9) and Indiana (15-9). Four members of the women's team (Sara Abutovic, Paula Pereira, Lisa Wilkinson and Elizaveta Zaytseva) will be making their third NCAA appearance while Sandra Herrera is making her second trip. The Lady Eagles were eliminated by host Clemson the past two years.
Winthrop's men (13-11) are making their fourth NCAA appearance in the past eight years and their first since 2006. This will mark the first NCAA tournament for all eight members of the team. The Eagles will face a tough task against Tennessee which brings a 25-1 record into the championships. Winthrop has won six straight matches as they prepare to face the Vols. The other teams in the Knoxville bracket are East Tennessee (15-7) and Alabama (13-13).
“We are excited to have both teams playing at the same site,” said Carvalho, who is in his 25th season at Winthrop. “This will mark our program's first-ever trip to Knoxville.”