Men's Tennis earns No. 3 seed in NCAA Championships
AUSTIN, Texas -- The third-ranked University of Texas men's tennis team earned a No. 3 seed and will host a NCAA regional for the first time since 2003 when the NCAA Tennis Championships get underway next week. The Big 12 Champion Longhorns (22-3) will play host to Ohio Valley Conference Champion Tennessee Tech (13-11) in a NCAA first-round match in Austin tentatively scheduled for Saturday, May 13 at a time to be announced. Sun Belt Conference Champion Louisiana-Lafayette (16-6) will take on Conference USA runner-up Rice (18-7) in the other first-round match at UT's Penick-Allison Tennis Center. The winners of the two first-round matches will meet in the NCAA regional final tentatively scheduled for Sunday, May 14. The Texas men will make their 24th appearance in the NCAA Tennis Championships. UT scored its best overall finish in 1993, when the Longhorns reached the national semifinals before falling to eventual national champion Southern California. Texas holds a 21-23 tournament record. Notably, Texas has faced Rice in two of the last three NCAA regional championships in which it has participated. The Longhorns defeated the Owls in 2003 when Texas last hosted a NCAA regional event en route to the round of 16. In 2005, Texas opened the tournament with a 4-3 win over Rice at the NCAA regional in Waco. Texas did not face Louisiana-Lafayette or Tennessee Tech this season, but the Longhorns met Rice in a lengthy match last month in Houston. Rice dealt Texas a 5-2 defeat to snap the Longhorns' 14-match win streak.
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