Four UAA Teams Earn Bids to NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championship

Four UAA Teams Earn Bids to NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championship

UAA champion Emory University will lead four Association teams into the 2017 NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championship. University of Chicago, Carnegie Mellon University, and Washington University each earned Pool C berths to the tournament.

2017 NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championship Bracket

Emory, making its 33rd-consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament, received one of the 38 automatic qualifiers after claiming its fifth straight and 28th overall University Athletic Association championship in April. The Eagles will enter the field 13-6 overall and 11-1 against Division III opponents.

Emory received a first-round bye and travels to Sewanee University in Murfreesboro, TN to play its second and third round matches. The Eagles will play the winner of Friday's opening round match between Methodist (17-6) and Rose-Hulman (12-2) on Saturday, May 13th. On the other side of the draw, 13th-ranked Washington & Lee (20-5) will face off against 17th-ranked and host Sewanee (19-5).

The two Saturday winners will square off on Sunday, May 15th with a bid to the NCAA Division III Quarterfinals on the line. The 2017 NCAA Division III Quarterfinals are slated to begin on May 22nd in Chattanooga, TN.

Chicago will serve as the host of a seven-team regional on Friday-Sunday, May 12-14. The Maroons received a first-round bye and will play the winner of Coe College (18-9) versus Augustana College (24-6). The other participating teams in the regional include Gustavus Adolphus College (19-7), St. Norbert College (23-11), Kenyon College (11-9) and Franciscan University (14-6).

The Maroons own a 16-4 record and are ranked No. 9 in NCAA Division III by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). They took second place at the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship in April. This marks UChicago's 10th NCAA postseason appearance and ninth straight since 2009. They've reached the quarterfinals six times, the semifinals four times and the finals once in program history.

The Tartans, making their 12th NCAA appearance in the past 13 years, will travel to Williams College for the regional event on May 12-14. The team enters the championship ranked 10th in the nation.

Carnegie Mellon (17-7) will play Messiah College (11-7), the winner of the MAC Commonwealth, in the opening round on Friday with the start time to be determined. Should the Tartans advance, the team will face the winner of the University of Mary Washington (19-5) and Westminster College (12-0) on Saturday. Mary Washington won the Capital Athletic Conference Championship while Westminster will represent the Presidents' Athletic Conference after winning that title in October.

Williams, ranked fourth in the nation, has a first round bye and will face the winner of Wilkes University (23-0) and Johnson & Wales (R.I.) (15-3) on Saturday with Saturday's winners playing Sunday.

The Tartans have not played Messiah in the 14 years Andrew Girard has been head coach but met Mary Washington twice this season, winning 5-1 at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship and 5-4 at home in April. The Eagles are currently ranked 15th. The Tartans are 0-4 against Williams under Girard with the Ephs winning on a neutral court three times and in Pittsburgh once.

The Bears will travel to Whitewater, Wis., for a seven-team regional scheduled for Thursday-Saturday, May 11-13.

John Carroll University (16-9) and Concordia-Wisconsin (16-10) meet Thursday in the first round, followed by No. 21 Hope College (18-3) and College of St. Scholastica (18-5). Regional host and No. 27-ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (19-7) and Northwestern-St. Paul (23-5) also meet on Thursday.

The winner of John Carroll and Concordia-Wisconsin will take on WashU Friday in the second round. The winners of Hope/St. Scholastica and Wisconsin-Whitewater/Northwestern-St. Paul will meet in the second round.

The second round winners will meet in the Regional Championship match on Saturday.

The Bears are making their 18th overall NCAA Championship appearance and 10th in a row. WashU has an all-time record of 13-17 (.433) in the NCAA tournament. The Bears have advanced to the NCAA Division III Quarterfinals four times in school history.