Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats Travel to Athens, Ga. for NCAA Tournament
5/11/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
NCAA Regional Championship Notes in PDF Format
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EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern's men's tennis team will begin competition in the NCAA Tournament at 9 a.m. CT Saturday, May 14 by facing Clemson in the first round. Winthrop and sixth-seeded Georgia join the Wildcats and Tigers to round out the NCAA Regional, held in Athens, Ga. The winner of the regional advances to the round of 16, hosted by Texas A&M.
NCAA REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
Saturday, May 14
First Round -- Northwestern vs. Clemson @ 9 a.m. CT
First Round -- No. 6 Georgia vs. Winthrop @ 1 p.m. CT
Sunday, May 15
Championship Match @ 1 p.m. CT
• Check out Georgia's NCAA Regional Championship page for additional information and live updates of the matches.
This will be the seventh meeting between Northwestern and Clemson -- a meeting that will see one team take the lead in the all-time series currently knotted at 3-3.
"We're extremely excited to be heading back to the NCAA Tournament," head coach Paul Torricelli said. "These guys have fought through some tough competition this yea. They've earned this the hard way."
Don't expect Torricelli to tinker too much with the lineup he has employed over the latter part of the season -- a lineup that has seen the `Cats win six of their last eight matches.
Seniors Tommy Hanus (Palatine, Ill./Palatine), Justin Hoeveler (Ross, Calif./The Branson School) and Chuck Perrin (Atlanta, Ga./The Walker School) have the only NCAA Tournament experience on the Wildcat roster. Each senior was a part of the 2002 NCAA Tournament team that finished the season 13-10 overall and 6-4 in the Big Ten.
Clemson has put together a 24-10 overall mark so far, highlighted by an 11-match winning streak from mid-February to mid-March.
The Tigers' ace is undoubtedly Nathan Thompson, who enters the postseason as the 27th-ranked singles player in the nation. Thompson also teams with Ryan Young to form the nation's 50th-ranked doubles duo.
If the 'Cats advance past the Tigers, they will run up against either Georgia or Winthrop in the championship match Sunday for the right to move on to College Station, Texas.
