Tennis Stats

STEPHENVILLE - After a one-year hiatus, the Tarleton TexAnn tennis team has returned to the NCAA regional tournament as the No. 4 seed and will open play Sunday against No. 5 seed Western New Mexico.

This marks the 10th trip to the NCAA tournament for Tarleton in the past 11 years.

"This is a good accomplishment for these girls after an injury-plagued season," said Tarleton head coach Lance Drake. "We took some losses throughout the season but won the important matches. It's great to be back in the tournament after coming up one match short last season. I'm extremely proud of our young ladies."

The NCAA regional tournament is a five-team format at two different locations. The No. 4 and 5 seeds will play first at the home of the No. 1 seed, who plays the winner of the 4-5 match while the No. 2 and 3 seeds - Midwestern State and St. Mary's, respectively - will play at the home of the No. 2 seed - Wichita Falls.

Abilene Christian received the No. 1 seed in the tournament so the TexAnns will head to Abilene for their first round meeting against Western New Mexico which is scheduled to get under way Sunday at 1 p.m.

The winner of Tarleton-WNMU will play ACU at 11:45 a.m. Monday.

Tarleton and Western New Mexico met once during the regular season, playing in the second game of a three-match tournament at Texas-El Paso on March 9. The TexAnns won the match 8-1 but were forced to play without No. 1 singles player, Alicia Perez who missed the match due to injury.

For the complete NCAA Tournament Field, visit NCAA.com.