Revised: May 2, 2007

PLU Men Netters Head to California for Regionals

NCAA Release

Pacific Lutheran will face Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges at 2 p.m. Saturday in an opening round match of the NCAA Division III men’s regional tennis tournament in Santa Cruz, Calif.

PLU is the Northwest Conference tournament champion and enters the regional event with a 16-9 dual match record. The Lutes, the No. 3 seed in the regional, are unranked in the itatennis.com Division III Top 25 poll. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges, ranked No. 2 in the country and winner of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship, is the No. 2 seed and has a 25-6 record. The winner of that match will play at noon on Sunday for the regional championship and a berth at the national tournament, while the loser will see its season come to an end.

On the other side of the bracket, No. 4 seed University of Redlands will face No. 5 seed Hardin-Simmons University on Friday night. Redlands, 12-14 this year, earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament after losing to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in their conference tournament. Hardin-Simmons, 14-6 in dual matches, won its sixth straight American Southwest Conference crown to advance to the NCAA regional.

The winner between Redlands and Hardin-Simmons takes on tournament host UC Santa Cruz, ranked No. 1 in Division III men’s tennis and the No. 1 seed in this event, at 10 a.m. on Saturday. The Banana Slugs, who received an at-large bid as a Division III independent, have won five national titles, most recently in 2005. The winner of that match will play either PLU or Claremont-Mudd-Scripps for the regional title.

Of the five teams in the regional, Pacific Lutheran is the only one that is not ranked in the April 16 Division III Top 25 by itatennis.com. Besides Santa Cruz and Claremont, Redlands is ranked No. 16 and Hardin-Simmons is ranked No. 27. Pacific Lutheran is also unranked in the regional poll.

Pacific Lutheran has played two of the regional entrants, losing 6-3 to UC Santa Cruz in Tacoma on Feb. 10 and 6-3 at Redlands on March 27.

- PLU -