May 4, 2011
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Sophomore Nazari Urbina will once again represent Texas A&M at the NCAA Division I Women's Singles Championship, the NCAA announced today.
Urbina (Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico), who last year became the first freshman in Texas A&M history to play in the NCAA Singles Championship, received an at-large bid and is one of 64 players who will compete at the tournament to be conducted May 25-30 at the Taube Tennis Center in Stanford, Calif.
Urbina is ranked No. 26 in the nation in singles. She is 27-9 overall, including 16-7 against ranked opponents, with four of those losses coming against opponents currently ranked in the top 10. Most recently, Urbina recorded the highest ranked win of her career, defeating 11th-ranked Sona Novakova of Baylor, 6-2, 6-1, in the semifinals of the Big 12 Championship on April 30 in Waco, Texas. Novakova, who received the Big 12 Conference's automatic bid, is a No. 9-16 seed at the NCAA tournament.
Automatic qualification into the Division I singles championships is awarded to any conference with one or more eligible singles players ranked in the ITA top 125 for eligible/entered singles players. For conferences with more than one singles player within the ITA top 125 eligible/entered singles players, the subcommittee applied the NCAA selection criteria to determine which student-athlete is the automatic qualifier from those conferences. All singles players must have a record of a minimum of 13 completed singles matches in order to be selected as an automatic qualifier or an at-large selection.
Matches will be the best of three sets. Regular scoring and a 12-point tiebreaker at six games all will be used for all matches.
The tournament draw will be announced following the conclusion of the team championship, which runs May 20-24. Stanford will serve as host.
Last year, Urbina fell to No. 9-16 seed and 11th-ranked Caitlin Whoriskey of Tennessee, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, in first round action on the McWhorter Courts at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex on the University of Georgia campus in Athens, Ga. Whoriskey went on to reach the round of 16 and earn All-America status.
Urbina and the Aggies (15-8) return to action Saturday, May 14, as they host SMU in the first round of the NCAA team championships. First serve is at noon at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center. In the preceding first-round match, No. 12 seed Florida State and Southern University will meet at 9 a.m.
The winners advance to the second round, to be played Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Mitchell Tennis Center. The second-round winner advances to the Round of 16 to be played at Stanford University's Taube Tennis Center in Stanford, Calif., beginning May 20.
Tickets can be purchased in advance at 12thManFoundation.com.