Story and Photos by Marcia Frost

The University of Tulsa plays host to this year's NCAA Division I Championships as the sixteen teams who made it through regional play have a chance to make it into the quarterinals of this elite event.  This is only the beginning of a long two weeks as the team, singles and doubles events for both men and women will produce the country's college tennis champions.

Since this tournament was combined for men and women in 2006, the NCAA has been alternating who starts first each year.  This year it was the women's turn, and despite a bit of morning rain, the rest of the day was beautiful, with partly sunny skies and some great play.  The only upset of the day was the 4-2 win by the University of Arkansas (who had also upset No. 15 North Carolina in the previous round) over No. 2 Georgia. 

The rest of the teams proceeded as expected, though it was a real close one between the University of California (8) and Duke (9).  While Duke was up 3-1 at one point, the Bears came back for 3-2 and then one two more in tiebreakers to take the match.

Over the next two weeks I will have more detailed reports and photos from the finals of the events at the NCAA Division I Championships.  The men will begin team play tomorrow with their round of 16, followed by the women's quarters on Saturday and the men's on Sunday.  Monday both play their semis, followed by the team finals on Tuesday.  The individual events start next Wednesday with 64 singles and 32 doubles draws, with finales on Monday, May 26th.

Between the stories on the NCAA Division I Championships I will also be filling in with reports from the final championships of the small college (NCAA Division II, III, NAIA and Junior College) divisions, as well as college awards and All Americans before we close out the 2007-08 College Tennis Season.  You can also follow all of the action at:

CollegeAndJuniorTennis.com

NCAA.com

University of Tulsa Official Site

Marcia Frost can be reached at Marcia@CollegeAndJuniorTennis.com