May 1, 2007
WOMEN'S TENNIS BACK IN NCAA TOURNAMENT FOR FOURTH TIME
California's Roadman Park tennis courts will be the site of a four-team NCAA East Regional Tournament May 4-5, featuring top-seeded California, Pa. (25-1), fourth-seeded Queens, N.Y. (13-5), fifth-seeded Bryant (14-5) and eighth-seeded Holy Family (17-3).
Queens and Bryant will battle in the opening match, beginning at 10 a.m., followed by the California vs. Holy Family clash at 2 p.m. The winners will advance to Saturday's second round 1 p.m.
The website for the tournament is available at:
http://www.calvulcans.com/champ/ATN/
In the other half of the Regional Tournament, #2 Bloomsburg (17-3) will play host to #3 Slippery Rock (22-5), #6 Bentley (14-10) and #7 Millersville (7-5).
The winners of the two regional tournaments will advance to the Sweet 16 May 9-12 at Sunland Park.
Here are notes on each of the four teams competing at California:
QUEENS (N.Y.) vs. BRYANT (R.I.)
Queens defeated Concordia College, 5-4, to win the East Coast Conference championship during the fall season ... It was the fifth-straight conference championship for the Lady Knights ... Queens topped Stonehill, 5-0 to advance to the second round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament before losing to top-seeded host Bloomsburg, 5-2 ... Senior Dominika Bajuk is the three-time ECC Player of the Year.
WEBSITE
http://qcpages.qc.edu/QCSPORTS/wtennis.html
Bryant is led by Sacha Solomon, who was a third-team all-conference selection in 2007 with a 61-15 career record, including a 44-2 mark in Northeast-10 competition ... Solomon was the ITA East Regional Tournament champion and Northeast-10 Freshman of the Year in 2004 and is a three-time first-team all-conference and Player of the year ... Other top players for Bulldogs include No. 2 Annette Jervasi (57-14 career) and No. 4 Lauren Mullen (40-11 career).
WEBSITE
http://www.bryantbulldogs.com/sports/wten/index
HOLY FAMILY (Pa.) vs. CALIFORNIA (Pa.)
Holy Family makes its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament in just its third year as a varsity sport ... The Tigers sport an 18-3 mark, and finished 14-2 in the fall season ... The Tigers are led by interim head coach Brett Shavitz, who took over for former head coach Albert Stroble, who led the Tigers to the CACC team title, left Holy Family in February to become Assistant AD at Chestnut Hill College ... Junior transfer Lauren Neill was an All-CACC selection in the fall.
WEBSITE
http://extra.holyfamily.edu/athletics/wten/index.asp
The California Vulcans (25-1), ranked No. 6 in the most recent ITA national poll, is the top seed in the East Region and has already broken the team record for most wins in a season ... Cal's only setback during the 2006-07 season was at Division I West Virginia (5-4) ... The Vulcans have posted 20 shutouts this season, including decisions over Millersville (6-0) and Bloomsburg (5-0) to win the 2007 PSAC Championship, the third title in team history and first since 1993 ... This will be the first time Cal has ever hosted an NCAA Tournament tennis competition ... It is also Cal's fifth appearance in the NCAA Tournament and fourth in five seasons under Head Coach Pablo Montana ... Montana's teams have compiled an 89-35 overall record (71.8%), but have never advanced past the first round of the NCAA Tournament ... Jr. Inga Chilingaryan, the top-ranked player in the region, was named PSAC Championship Tournament MVP and won both the singles and doubles (with Fr. Yumi Matsuto) titles at the ITA Regional Championship during the fall season ... Chilingaryan is #11 individually and No. 5 as a doubles tandem with Matsuto ... Jr. Lisa Santoro is also nationally ranked (#41) by the ITA.
