Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats Tabbed To Host NCAA First And Second Rounds
5/1/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
May 1, 2012
EVANSTON, Ill.-- Fresh off its 12th Big Ten regular season championship, the Northwestern Wildcats learned their postseason fate on Tuesday afternoon. The 'Cats have received the 13th overall seed and will host Akron in the first round on Friday, May 11 at the Vandy Christie Tennis Center.
This marks the 13th straight season that Northwestern has been chosen to host the opening rounds. In 11 of the past 12 seasons, the Wildcats have won both their first- and second-round matchups to advance to the round of 16. Joining NU and the Zips in Evanston this time around will be Notre Dame and Hawaii.
Notre Dame and Hawaii will play the first match on May 11 at 11 a.m. with the 'Cats and Zips to follow at 2 p.m.
The two winners from Friday will play one another on Saturday, May 12 at Vandy Christie Tennis Center. The Wildcats have never faced Akron on the courts. Pollard's bunch defeated Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. earlier this season on April 4, 4-3. NU is 2-0 all-time against Hawaii.
The Wildcats wrapped up the regular season and Big Ten Tournament with 18 wins to their credit in 2012. Northwestern won 11 of 12 conference matches en route to capturing its 12th Big Ten regular season title in 14 years under the direction of head coach Claire Pollard. NU also endured another top-notch nonconference schedule this spring, taking on and beating the likes of No. 8 North Carolina, No. 9 Virginia and No. 15 Vanderbilt.
Northwestern was well represented as usual on the annual All-Big Ten teams. No. 1 singles player Kate Turvy was a unanimous First Team selection, where she is joined this year by sophomore Belinda Niu. Junior Brittany Wowchuk collected Second Team honors and one of the newest Wildcats, Veronica Corning, earned the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award.
A year ago, the Wildcats advanced to the round of 16 after taking down IPFW and No. 20 Notre Dame on their home courts. It was the eighth straight time that the Wildcats had won at least two matches in NCAA Tournament play. Northwestern then headed to Palo Alto, Calif., where they fell to the No. 1 overall seed, Stanford.
Once the 64-team field is narrowed to 16, the remaining participants on both the women's and men's sides will travel to the University of Gerogia's Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga. to play out the rest of the tournament. The entire bracket is available near the top of this page.
The fields for both the singles and doubles tournaments will be revealed on Wednesday, May 2.
Check back to NUsports.com in the coming days for more information.
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