Denver - Two Western Athletic Conference men's tennis teams will be among the field of 64 to compete in the 2009 NCAA Men's Team Championships as announced by the NCAA on Tuesday. Boise State and 2009 WAC Tournament Champion, Hawai`i, will be two of the 64 teams competing in the single-elimination championship.
The No. 25th-ranked Broncos will be headed to the campus of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala., to participate in the first and second rounds of the tournament. One of 64 qualifying teams, the Broncos (22-8) will face the newly crowned Sun Belt Champions, Middle Tennessee State (16-9) on May 8 in their first round match. Boise State will be making their fifth-consecutive and 14th overall appearance at the NCAA tournament.
On the other half of the bracket Alabama (20-7), who holds the No. 14 overall ranking, will host Furman (22-7) in their first round match.
No. 49 Hawai`i will be traveling to Los Angeles to face 20th-ranked Oklahoma State in a first-round match. The Rainbow Warriors (10-9) are making their second-straight trip to the NCAA Tournament. UH fell to 13th-ranked Pepperdine in Malibu, Calif., in a first-round contest last year. UH, winners of five of its last six matches, earned another automatic berth into this year’s tournament following its 4-2 win over Boise State in the WAC title match on Sunday.
UH will face the Cowboys on Friday, May 8, 10:00 a.m. PT (7:00 a.m. HT), at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
The teams will play a single-elimination tournament, with the winners of each of the 16 first and second round sites advancing to the NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championships.
The 2009 Division I NCAA Tennis Championship first and second rounds will be held May 8-9 at 16 various campus sites. The championship finals will be held May 14-25 at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. The team finals will be held between May 14-19 while individual singles are slated for May 20-25 and doubles for May 21-25.
The singles and doubles fields were announced by the NCAA on Wednesday, April 29 and Boise State will have three athletes compete in the tournaments. Hawai`i and Fresno State each have one student-athlete as an alternate in the singles tournament. The complete list is below:
Singles
Clancy Shields, Boise State (automatic qualifier)
Alternatives:
1. Rudolf Siwy, Fresno State
9. Dennis Lajola, Hawaii
Doubles
Kean Feeder/James Meredith, Boise State (automatic qualifier)