The first two rounds of the NCAA Division I Championships took place this past weekend
on campuses across the country.  Each of the 16 seeds in the men's and women's draws got
to play "host" to three other teams as they played off for a spot in the elite Round of
16.  By the end of the weekend, there were some that were heartbroken as they lost
their chance at a trip to the University of Tulsa, but weren't any real surprises among
the fallen.

The women will be up first with play on Thursday so they finished up their first two
rounds this Saturday.  The top half of the draw moved on rather easily with only two
4-3 matches in the first round (Indiana over Louisville; Tulsa over TCU) and uncontested
4-0 & 4-1 in the second.  The bottom half, though, was a different story.

It was as expected in the first round as all the seeds advanced through the first round (though
VCU pushed South Carolina to 4-3), but there were two minor upsets within the eight matches in the second round of the bottom half of the draw.  the University of Texas at 17-32 got past Florida State University, seeded as No. 14, 5-2.  It was a thriller match full of three-setters and tiebreakers, sealed by UT's Stephanie Davison over Carolin Walter, 5-7,6-4,7-6(5).

The other women's upset is not overly surprising considering that the University of Arkansas 
and the North Carolina are ranked 17 and 14 respectively.  That one came down to Delia Damaschin's win over Meg Fanjoy, 6-1,4-6,6-3.  It will be Arkansas' first trip to the Sweet Sixteen in two decades.

Among the men, there was only was only one upset, though there were a number of tight matches. The upset was certainly a disappointing one as the host of the NCAA Division I Championships, the eleventh-seeded University of Tulsa, fell to Oklahoma State, 4-3, in the second round.  The match was decided at the No. 3 singles where Dmytro Petrov came back from match point down to defeat  Tulsa's Will Gray, 4-6,7-6(3),6-2.

Out of three matches played at Florida State University, two came down to the wire with
South Alabama squeaking by Alabama before losing in the second to Florida State with the
same 4-3 score.

In other close calls during men's regional play, Vanderbilt-Indiana came to a 9/7
tiebreaker on the last match and Vijay Paul defeated Philip Eilers, 7-6(2),4-6,7-6(7)
for Vanderbilt's place in round two.  And, the University of Illinois came back from
a 0-2 deficit to take out LSU and earn an opportunity for Big Ten Championship revenge
against Ohio State in Friday's upcoming match.

Look for plenty more to come from the NCAA Division I Championships in Tulsa, beginning on Thursday, May 15th.

Photo of Delia Damaschin courtesy of University of Arkansas Media Relations

Marcia Frost can be reached at Marcia@CollegeAndJuniorTennis.com