No. 10 Seed Texas A&M Faces Alcorn State in NCAA Opener

Saturday, May 9

College Station

9:00 AM

Texas A&M

Alcorn State

May 08, 2015 | Women's Tennis

NCAA FIRST AND SECOND ROUNDS
(George P. Mitchell Tennis Center, College Station, Texas)

Saturday, May 9
TCU (18-8) vs. Notre Dame (14-10), 9 a.m.
No. 10 Texas A&M (15-5) vs. Alcorn State (11-12), 12 p.m.

Sunday, May 10
TCU/Notre Dame winner vs. No. 10 Texas A&M/Alcorn State winner, 1 p.m.

TOURNAMENT PREVIEW

Texas A&M (15-5) received a No. 10 seed in the 64-team NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Championship and will host first and second rounds, Saturday and Sunday, May 9-10 at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
The Aggies open against Alcorn State (11-12) on Saturday, May 9 at noon. The match follows a first-round meeting between TCU (18-8) and Notre Dame (14-10) to be played at 9 a.m. at the Mitchell Tennis Center.
First-round winners will face off Sunday, May 10 at 1 p.m. at the Mitchell Tennis Center, with the second-round winner advancing to Waco, Texas, for the round of 16 hosted by Baylor.
The Tournament Central page and live scoring will be available at 12thMan.com.

TICKETS

Tickets to the first and second-round matches can be purchased in advance at 12thManFoundation.com or during business hours at the Athletic Ticket Office located in The Zone at Kyle Field or by calling the ticket office at 1-888-99-AGGIE or 979-845-2311. Tickets also will be available for purchase on match days at the Mitchell Tennis Center beginning one hour before match time.
Student admission for the NCAA Tennis matches this weekend is complimentary thanks to coaches Howard Joffe and Steve Denton. Students must present their student ID at the ticket window to receive GA admission.
Prices are as follows, with the all-session ticket also allowing entry to the men's tennis first and second round matches to be played Friday and Saturday, May 8-9 at the Mitchell Tennis Center:

- $12 All-Session Reserved (Stadium Club)
- $7 Single Day Reserved (Stadium Club)
- $5 Single Day General Admission
- $3 Single Day Students/Youth
- Free for children under age two

TEXAS A&M NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES

Texas A&M is making its 16th consecutive and 21st overall appearance in the NCAA Championship.
Last year, the Aggies were a No. 10 seed in the NCAA tournament and defeated Stony Brook, 4-0, and Texas, 4-2, to advance to the round of 16 in Athens, Ga. Texas A&M was then eliminated by NCAA runner-up and current No. 1-ranked North Carolina, 4-0, in a match that was moved to the Ken Byers Tennis Complex indoor courts on the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta because of rain.
The Aggies' No. 10 seed marks the second consecutive year and the third time overall A&M has been seeded in the 64-team field. In 2004, A&M was No. 12.
This is the third consecutive year and seventh time overall Texas A&M has served as host of an NCAA match (2015, 2014, 2013, 2011, 2004, 2003, and 1996). The Aggies, 8-2 in home matches this season, are 9-3 all-time in home NCAA tournament matches and 19-20 overall in NCAA tournament history.
Texas A&M is 11-5 against the 2015 tournament field, with one of the losses coming against TCU in the championship match of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend on Jan. 25 in College Station.
The Aggies are 8-3 in NCAA matches under fourth-year head coach Howard Joffe.
A&M's best tournament finish was in 2013 when the Aggies advanced to the championship match before narrowly falling to 17-time national champion Stanford, 4-3.
Texas A&M is one of 12 teams representing the Southeastern Conference in the 2015 NCAA tournament field. Vanderbilt, the SEC tournament champion and the league's automatic qualifier, is the league's highest seeded team at No. 4. SEC regular-season champion Florida is the No. 5 seed, and Georgia, Texas A&M and Alabama are the No. 6, 10 and 13 seeds, respectively. Other SEC teams in the tournament are Arkansas, Auburn, Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and South Carolina.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

The College Station second-round winner advances to the round of 16 to face Miami, North Florida, Ole Miss or Denver on Friday, May 15 at 10 a.m. at Baylor's Hurd Tennis Center in Waco.
Texas A&M enters the NCAA tournament having won 12 of its last 14 matches
The Aggies have no seniors on the team
Texas A&M tied Georgia and Vanderbilt for second place in the Southeastern Conference standings with an 11-2 record.
The Aggies were the No. 3 seed at the SEC Tournament and fell to 24th-ranked and No. 6 seed LSU, 4-3, in the quarterfinals on April 17 at the Carolina Tennis Complex in Columbia, S.C.
UCLA is the defending national champion while Pac-12 foe USC is this year's No. 1 seed.

PROJECTED TEXAS A&M LINEUP

                                                                          Overall          Dual    SEC
1 Singles:  #26 Rachel Pierson (So., Princeton, N.J.)   22-12 11-8    8-5
2 Singles:  #53 Saska Gavrilovska (So., Vrsac, Serbia) 17-11 10-7    7-4
3 Singles:  #66 Rutuja Bhosale (So., Shrirampur, India) 22-12 14-5    10-3
4 Singles:  Ines Deheza (Jr., Santa Cruz, Bolivia) 13-9   9-6     6-3
5 Singles:  Eva Paalma (Fr., Tallinn, Estonia)   16-11   10-5    7-3
6 Singles: Anna Mamalat (Jr., Philadelphia, Pa.) 15-10 9-3     7-1
Others available: Stefania Hristov (Jr., Iasi, Romania); Mason Strickland (So., Dallas, Texas)

1 Doubles: #13 Paalma/Pierson                        10-4     8-4     7-3
2 Doubles: #39 Deheza/Hristov                          5-3      5-3     3-2
3 Doubles: Bhosale/Gavrilovska                        13-6    12-5    6-4

SERIES RECORDS

Texas A&M and Alcorn State are meeting for the first time.
Texas A&M leads former Southwest Conference-foe TCU, 20-18, in the all-time series dating back to 1980. The teams last met on Jan. 25 in the second round of the 2015 ITA Kick-Off Weekend in College Station with the 41st-ranked Frogs upending the No. 11 Aggies, 4-2, to advance to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship. With the win, TCU snapped a four-match losing skid against the Aggies and gave the Frogs a 10-9 series lead in matches played in College Station.
A&M is 2-1 against TCU in NCAA matches. The teams last met in the second round of the 2013 tournament with A&M winning at home 4-1 en route to its historical run to the championship match.
Notre Dame is 9-1 all-time against A&M. The Aggies won the first meeting in 1990, but the Irish have won each of the last nine match-ups, including the most recent meeting, a 6-1 decision on April 9, 2012, in College Station. The teams have never met in the NCAA tournament.

OPPONENT NOTES

The Alcorn State Lady Braves (11-12) are the Southwestern Athletic Conference automatic qualifier despite falling in the finals of the SWAC Championship to Southern University, which is ineligible for postseason competition.
Alcorn State, located in Lorman, Miss., is making its fourth appearance in the NCAA tournament, including its first since 2008, and is looking for its first postseason win.
Anthony Dodgen (Southern Miss '84) is in his 13th season as head coach of both the Alcorn men's and women's tennis teams.

No. 17-ranked TCU (18-8) is making its second NCAA appearance in the last three years and its 16th overall appearance.
The Horned Frogs, who tied for second in the Big 12 Conference, are 7-15 all-time in NCAA tournament matches.
Most recently, TCU fell to Big 12-champion Baylor, 4-0, in the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament.
Senior Simona Parajova, who enters the tournament riding a 10-match win streak in singles, is ranked No. 46 and received a bid to the NCAA Singles Championship.
Senior Stefanie Tan is No. 90 in singles and No. 30 in doubles with sophomore Seda Arantekin.
Lee Taylor Walker (Memphis '04) is in his first season as head coach of the Frogs, having spent the previous seven years as the women's tennis head coach at Memphis.

No. 34 Notre Dame (14-10) is making its 20th consecutive and 22nd overall NCAA tournament appearance after receiving an at-large bid.
Last year, Notre Dame defeated DePaul in the first round and knocked off No. 15-seed Northwestern, 4-3, in the second round before falling to No. 2-seed Alabama, 4-2, in the round of 16.
Notre Dame, 34-21 all-time in NCAA matches, had its best NCAA finish at the 2009 NCAA Championships hosted by Texas A&M, reaching the semifinals after defeating Baylor, 4-3.
The Fighting Irish are coming off a second-round 4-3 last-match-standing loss to Florida State at the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship on April 23.
The doubles team of Quinn Gleason and Monica Robinson is ranked 29th and received an at-large berth to the NCAA Doubles Championship.
Head coach Jay Louderback (Wichita State '76) is 501-217 in his 26th season as head coach of the Fighting Irish.

TEXAS A&M RECENT RESULTS

Texas A&M, which tied Georgia and Vanderbilt for second place in the SEC regular season, was the No. 3 seed at the 2015 SEC Championship, contested in Columbia, S.C., April 15-19.
For the first time in A&M's three years in the league, the Aggies dropped their opening match and did not reach the semifinals, falling to No. 6 seed LSU, 4-3, in the quarterfinals. The loss snapped A&M's seven-match win streak, as well as a seven-match win streak against the Tigers.
A&M won the doubles point and took a 2-0 lead as Rachel Pierson got a straight-set win at No. 1 singles. LSU then tied the score with straight-set wins at No. 2 and No. 5.
The remaining three matches would go three sets. The Tigers took the lead with a win at No. 3 before Ines Deheza tied the score, 3-3, pulling away from Noel Scott, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 at No. 4.
The match came down to the No. 6 court where A&M's Anna Mamalat forced a third set against Skylar Holloway, winning the second set, 6-1 after dropping the first-set tiebreaker, 8-6. Mamalat had jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the third set but Holloway rallied to win the next four games to go up 6-5. Mamalat won the next game to send the match to a tiebreaker. The breaker was tied for the fourth time at 4-4 before Holloway scored three unanswered points to win, 7-4, clinching the victory for the Tigers.

TEXAS A&M IN THE ITA RANKINGS

Texas A&M enters the NCAA tournament ranked 10th, marking the fourth consecutive week and the fifth time this year the Aggies have been ranked in the top 10.
The Aggies were No. 10 in the preseason ranking released Jan. 6. It is the second highest preseason ranking in school history.
A&M reached a season-high No. 7 ranking on April 14, jumping three spots following a week in which the Aggies defeated No. 7 Baylor, No. 8 Vanderbilt and No. 21 Kentucky in consecutive matches.
After having played only four matches and going a 2-2 with the biggest win being a season-opening victory over No. 70 North Texas leading into the Feb. 24 first computerized ranking of the season, the Aggies dropped out of the team ranking for the first time since March 10, 2010. A&M also was unranked the following week (March 3, 2015) before returning to the Top 75 on March 10, coming in at No. 46.
Sophomore Rachel Pierson enters the NCAAs ranked a career-high and team-best No. 26 in singles.
Pierson and freshman Eva Paalma are No. 13 in doubles, marking the highest ranking by an A&M doubles team this season. Pierson also is ranked 45th in doubles with junior Ines Deheza, although the two haven't played together since Feb. 12 against UT Arlington.
Sophomores Saska Gavrilovska and Rutuja Bhosale are ranked in singles at Nos. 54 and 66, respectively.
Deheza and junior Stefania Hristov are No. 39 in doubles and have been ranked as high as No. 16 (March 24)

THREE AGGIES INVITED TO NCAA INDIVIDUALS

Texas A&M's Rachel Pierson, Saska Gavrilovska and Eva Paalma have been selected to compete in the 2015 NCAA Individual Championships, May 20-25 at Baylor University's Hurd Tennis Center in Waco, Texas.
Pierson, a sophomore transfer from the University of Virginia, is making her first appearance in the singles tournament and will be competing in her second consecutive NCAA Doubles Championship, having been a No. 5-8 seed with Cavaliers partner Julia Elbaba as a freshman in 2014. The UVA duo suffered a first-round 6-3, 7-6 (8) loss to Brynn Boren and Zoe Katz of USC in Athens, Ga.
Gavrilovska, a sophomore from Serbia, will be competing in the singles tournament for the second consecutive season and will become only the second A&M player to compete in the prestigious event as both a freshman and sophomore. Former Aggie standout and A&M's only four-time NCAA singles participant Nazari Urbina is the only other A&M player to have competed in singles in each of her first two years.
Sophomore Rutuja Bhosale has an outside chance of making the singles tournament as the sixth alternate.
All 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.
This is the sixth consecutive year and 14th time overall A&M has been represented in the singles championships. A&M players are a combined 13-17 in singles matches since Kim Labuschagne became the first Aggie to compete in the postseason event in 1987.
Labuschagne and Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar are tied for the best finish in school history, reaching the quarterfinals in 1987 and 2012, respectively.
A&M is represented in the doubles tournament for the fourth consecutive year and the 15th time overall.
Aggies are a combined 2-15 since Labuschagne and partner Karen Marshall along with the A&M duo of Vanne Akagi and Gaye Lynne Gensler first represented the Maroon and White at the 1986 NCAA Doubles Championship.
Only Jessica Roland and Helga Vieira (2004) and Tiffany Clifford and Sarah Foster (2006) have reached the round of 16.
Last year, all three A&M entries were eliminated in the first round, with Gavrilovska and then-senior Cristina Stancu each suffering opening-round losses in singles, and Stancu and partner Stefania Hristov also suffering a first-round loss in doubles.

PASSING SHOTS

This is the third consecutive year and the fourth time overall A&M has been seeded in the NCAA tournament. The Aggies were the No. 12 seed in 2004 and advanced to the Round of 16. In 2013, they were No. 3 and advanced to the finals, and last year A&M was No. 10 and advanced to the round of 16.
A&M is one of five teams to have both its men's and women's tennis teams in the top 10 in the ITA rankings, joining Baylor, Georgia, USC and Virginia.
Texas A&M is 8-2 in home matches, including wins against No. 6 Baylor, No. 8 Vanderbilt and No. 9 Alabama. The losses were against No. 41 TCU in the second match of the season and against SEC regular-season champion and fifth-ranked Florida, 4-3, on March 24.
A&M is 12-5 against ranked opponents, including four Top 10 wins.
The Aggies are a combined 69-41 in singles and 33-17 in doubles in dual matches.
The doubles team of Eva Paalma and Rachel Pierson enters the NCAA tournament riding a seven-match win streak.
A&M is 9-0 when No. 2 singles wins
A&M is 8-0 at No. 4 singles when playing at home.