May 8, 2012
Grove City tennis teams advancing to NCAA Championships
GROVE CITY, Pa. -- The Grove City College men's and women's tennis teams will begin postseason play by competing in their respective NCAA Division III Championship Tournaments this week. The NCAA released the pairings for the 43-team men's tournament and the 49-team women's tournament Monday night.
The men's team will compete in a five-team regional at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore this weekend. The Wolverines will play Penn State-Harrisburg in the regional quarterfinals Friday.
Meanwhile, the Grove City women will compete in a six-team bracket at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va. Grove City opens the tournament against Mary Washington Thursday in a regional quarterfinal.
Grove City's men qualified for the NCAA Tournament by winning the Presidents' Athletic Conference title at the conference championships April 21 in Erie, Pa. The Wolverines (11-4 overall) earned their 22nd straight conference title and received the league's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season.
Freshman Peter Riley (Woodbury, Pa./Northern Bedford) earned the conference's Player of the Year award and head coach Joe Walters earned the league's Coach of the Year award for the seventh straight season.
This will be the second all-time NCAA Tournament appearance for Grove City's men's team. Last season, the Wolverines earned a 5-3 victory over Elizabethtown in the regional quarterfinals at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Va. Grove City then fell to eventual national runner-up Emory in the regional semifinals.
Penn State-Harrisburg (12-6) is making its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament after winning the North Atlantic Conference championship May 5. The Lions defeated Colby-Sawyer 6-3 in the championship match.
The winner of the Grove City-Harrisburg match will advance to play Middlebury in a regional semifinal Saturday. The other regional semifinal pits host Johns Hopkins against Elizabethtown. The semifinal winners will play Sunday afternoon in the regional final.
The Grove City women earned their fourth straight NCAA Tournament invitation by winning the Presidents' Athletic Conference title October 22 in Erie. Senior Stacy Moon (Lima, Ohio/Shawnee) earned the conference's Player of the Year award and Walters captured Coach of the Year for the second straight season.
Grove City (12-7 overall) is 1-3 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. In 2010, the Wolverines advanced to the regional semifinals. Last year, Grove City dropped a 5-2 decision to Albion in the regional quarterfinals at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind.
Mary Washington qualified for the NCAA Tournament by winning the Capital Athletic Conference title April 26. The Eagles (15-7) defeated Salisbury in the championship match, 8-1. The victory gave Mary Washington its ninth straight league title. Mary Washington is ranked No. 23 nationally in NCAA Division III.
The Grove City-Mary Washington winner will advance to play Vassar in the regional semifinals Friday. Thursday's other quarterfinal features Penn State Behrend and Hunter. The Behrend-Hunter victor will meet Johns Hopkins in a Friday semifinal. The semifinal winners will play Saturday for the regional championship.
The national quarterfinals, semifinals and finals for both men and women will be held May 21-23 in Cary, N.C.
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