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Six Squads Earn NCAA Championship Invitations
May 1, 2007
Complete Bracket in PDF Format Six Big Ten teams have been selected by the NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Subcommittee as part of the field of 64 for the 2007 NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championships. First- and second-round competition gets underway Friday through Sunday, May 11-13. Ohio State (27-1) earns its eighth-straight trip the postseason event after capturing back-to-back Big Ten Championship titles at the 2007 event. The No. 2 Buckeyes, who also claimed their second-straight conference regular season title, host Columbia (16-4) on May 11 on its home courts in Columbus, Ohio. It will mark the first-ever meeting between the teams this season. For the 12th-straight year, Illinois will enter the NCAA Tournament when it hosts No. 54 Western Michigan (18-7) the Atkins Tennis Center in Urbana, Ill., on May 11. The Illini (18-8), who are coming off a runner-up finish at the 2007 Big Ten Tournament, enter this year's installment as the 10th-seed. They will be playing host to the event for the 10th time in school history. No. 21 Michigan also earned a first-round trip to the Illinois campus, setting up a potential second-round meeting between the two conference squads. The Wolverines (19-6) take on Drake on May 11 at noon. It marks Michigan's second consecutive NCAA bid after ending a four-year absence with a trip to last year's postseason event. On the strength of a 15-10 record and a fourth-place finish in the Big Ten, Wisconsin received its first NCAA tournament bid since 1998 and third in program history. The No. 38 Badgers will try to notch another school first on May 11 by advancing past their first-round matchup versus Washington in South Bend, Ind. The winner of that match will face the winner of host and fifth-seeded Notre Dame and Butler on May 12. No. 42 Penn State team received its fourth all-time NCAA Tournament bid and second in as many years after first-year head coach Todd Doebler led the Nittany Lions to a program-best-tying fourth-place finish in the Big Ten. It also marked Penn State's their highest mark since joining the conference in 1992. The Nittany Lions (16-6) are set to face 20th-ranked and defending NCAA Champion Pepperdine (22-7) in a first-round match-up to be held in Los Angeles on May 11. The winner of that match will advance to meet the winner of the No. 12 seed USC and UC-Santa Barbara. Minnesota travels to Oxford, Miss., for a first-round clash with No. 28 South Alabama (21-4) on May 11 at 1 p.m.. The 37th-ranked Golden Gophers (15-9) will make their 13th appearance in the past 14 years in the NCAA Championships and first under new head coach Geoff Young. A win could pit Minnesota against the victor of host Mississippi and Jacksonville State on Sunday, May 13. The winner of each site will advance to the NCAA Championships at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga., hosted by the University of Georgia. The team championship will be held May 17-22.
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