FGCU men to travel to UCLA for first round of NCAA tennis tourney
After winning its first-ever Atlantic Sun Championship and A-Sun regular season title, the FGCU men’s tennis team will travel to No. 16 UCLA for the first round of the 2015 NCAA Championship, as announced by the Selection Committee on NCAA.com Tuesday night.
The Eagles, who hold a 17-5 record on the season, will head to Los Angeles to face the Bruins at the Los Angeles Tennis Center May 8 at 4 p.m. Eastern (1 p.m. local). UCLA earned an at-large bid after losing to eventual Pac-12 Champion USC in the semifinals of the Pac-12 Tournament. Texas Tech and UC Santa Barbara will also play at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on May 8.
If the Eagles win in the first round against UCLA, they have a potential rematch with UC Santa Barbara May 9 at 6 p.m. Eastern (3 p.m. local). FGCU lost to the Gauchos on March 5 by a close 4-3 score and have won 11 straight matches since then.
“What a showing for us,” said head coach CJ Weber in front of a full Alico Arena Hospitality Suite following the viewing party. “We have some incredible support here at FGCU and today was a great representation of that. We’re excited to be headed out to Los Angeles to play our first round against the Bruins. It was nice that we were able to go out to California earlier this year for our spring break to have a bit of familiarity to the trip. We’ll use this next week and a half to prepare to bring our best.”
This marks the first time in program history that FGCU will make a team appearance at the NCAA Championship. Jordi Vives made an individual appearance in the NCAA Championship last year and advanced to the second round.
Vives, who transferred from USC is familiar with the Bruins as the two schools are arch rivals. The Bruins enter the NCAA Championship with an overall record of 15-9 and went 5-2 in the Pac-12. UCLA beat Washington in the PAC-12 Champion-ships quarterfinal.
During the 2014 NCAA Championship UCLA advanced to the Final Four before losing to Oklahoma by a 4-2 score at the Dan Magill Tennis Center on the campus of Georgia.
The Green and Blue have faced two other teams besides UC Santa Barbara in the NCAA Champion-ship. The Eagles faced FSU and Troy earlier in the season. FGCU fell to the Seminoles by a 4-0 count and lost a 4-3 nail-biter against Troy. FSU and Troy are set to face each other in the first round of the NCAA Championship on the campus of Georgia. FSU got an at-large bid after falling in the ACC quarterfinals to Virginia which won the ACC Championship. Troy won the Sun Belt Championship after beating South Alabama by a 4-1 score.
Former conference member East Tennessee State University was the last team in the A-Sun to win a match in the NCAA Championship. The Bucs defeated Alabama on May 15, 2010, in the first round by a 4-2 count before falling to Tennessee in the second round by a score of 4-1.
In order to host an NCAA Tournament match, a school needs to be ranked 16 or higher in the most recent Intercollegiate Ten-nis Association (ITA) ranking. The top 16 ranked schools in the nation will serve as the host to three other schools for the first and second rounds on May 8-9 or May 9-10.
All matches for the Round of 16 through the National Championship will be held at the Hurd Tennis Center on the campus of Baylor University in Waco, Texas.