Five Big Ten Teams and Five Student-Athletes to Compete in 2008 NCAA Women's Tennis Championships - BIG TEN CONFERENCE Official Athletic Site

Five Big Ten Teams and Five Student-Athletes to Compete in 2008 NCAA Women's Tennis Championships

First- and second-round matches take place this weekend

May 6, 2008

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Five Big Ten teams will compete in the 2008 NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Championships beginning this weekend. First- and second-round action takes place May 9-11 at various sites.

Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Northwestern and Ohio State will all be competing in this year's event. Along with these five squads, five Big Ten student-athletes were selected as singles and doubles participants in the championships.

Big Ten Champion Northwestern earned the top seed in this year's bracket, the program's first No. 1 seed in the NCAA Championships. The host Wildcats will play Illinois-Chicago in the first round in Evanston, Ill., on Friday. NU is coming off a record 10th-consecutive Big Ten title and is currently riding a 20-match win streak.

Joining Northwestern in Evanston will be Indiana. The Hoosiers finished third in the Big Ten standings this year and will battle Louisville in their first-round match on Friday. Indiana is making its conference-leading 21st appearance in the NCAA Championships.

Illinois will travel to Atlanta, Ga., to face Tennessee in the first round. The Illini are making their eighth NCAA appearance in program history.

Michigan will play Furman in its first match of the tournament on Friday in Clemson, S.C. The Wolverines are currently ranked No. 19 nationally and finished runner-up in this year's Big Ten Championship. U-M is making its seventh-consecutive appearance in the NCAA Championships and 10th overall.

Ohio State travels to Gainesville, Fla., where it will face Auburn on Friday. OSU returns to the NCAA Championships for the first time since 2004.

In the singles portion of the championships, Northwestern's Maria Mosolova is the Big Ten's automatic qualifier. Joining her in the singles bracket are Michigan's Chisako Sugiyama and NU's Lauren Lui, Samantha Murray and Georgia Rose. In doubles, NU's Lui and Rose are the conference's automatic qualifying duo, and the only doubles tandem from the Big Ten participating. In addition, Michigan's Tania Mahtani and Sugiyama were chosen as alternates for the doubles portion of this year's event.