PROVO -- With an impressive 21-6 record, an MWC regular-season title and the 2007 MWC Championship title, the 28th ranked BYU women's tennis team is making its 18th and fourth consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament.
The Cougar team will play the University of Oregon, on Friday, May 11 in Palo Alto on the Stanford campus. The winner gets a second round match with no. 1 ranked Stanford on Saturday, May 12.
"We're very excited to play Oregon next week," said head coach Craig Manning. "We love playing in California and if we play our best we will have a chance to play the no. 1 team in the country."
Oregon comes into the NCAA tournament with a 12-12 record and is ranked 41 in this week's poll. They lost in the first round of the Pac-10 Championships. The Cougars are one of four MWC schools participating in this year's NCAA's. San Diego State, TCU and UNLV received at-large bids.
Stanford hosts Sacramento State who received an automatic bid by winning the Big Sky conference tournament last weekend. They are ranked 58th in this week's poll.
During the 2007 women's tennis season BYU and Oregon played six common opponents. The Ducks split dual matches with Washington and Washington State, while the Cougars defeated both teams. Earlier in the season both teams played and defeated Texas Tech and Colorado and both lost to San Diego State. Oregon played Stanford losing by a score of 7-0.
"We will start preparing and getting ready for our match with Oregon this week," added coach Manning.
He has taken the women's team to seven NCAA tournament appearances since taking over the program in 1999. Manning garnered his third MWC Coach of the Year last week.
On Wednesday the NCAA announces the individual single and doubles team participants.