Women's Tennis: NCAA Preview
5/8/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
FORT WORTH, Texas -- The No. 17 TCU women's tennis team will begin their postseason by traveling to College Station, Texas to take part in the NCAA First and Second Rounds on May 9-10 on the campus of Texas A&M.
The Horned Frogs (18-8) will open with No. 34 Notre Dame (14-10) at 9 a.m., on Saturday while No. 10 Texas A&M (15-5) will face Alcorn State (11-12) at Noon in the other matchup. The winners of both matches will meet in the second round on Sunday at 1 p.m., at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center, with the victor advancing to compete in the NCAA Championship Team Finals held May 14 through 25 at the Hurd Tennis Center in Waco, Texas on the campus of Baylor.
TCU Notables
TCU is making its 16th appearance in the NCAA Championship in program history and its second in the last three seasons. The Frogs are coming off a tie for second place in the Big 12 and an appearance in the semifinals of the Big 12 Tennis Championship.
TCU was recently honored with All-Big 12 awards, as Simona Parajova and Stefanie Tan were named to the All-Big 12 Singles Team while Tan and Seda Arantekin were named to the All-Big 12 Doubles Team. No. 90 Tan has never left court one all season long in singles and doubles and has racked 14 wins in singles action, including three over ranked foes. Tan wrapped up Big 12 play with a 5-0 record in singles action and managed to only drop one match in the month of April.
The No. 30 ranked pair of Tan and Arantekin had an extremely successful season, with the duo recording a 16-7 record, including five over ranked opponents. The pair are 9-1 in their last 10 matches and have one 11 match at the No. 1 doubles position.
This year, No. 46 Parajova has led the team from start to finish in singles action and recorded a 23-4 record this season. The Slovakia native has won her last 10 matches and is 15-2 at the No. 2 position for TCU. Parajova has downed five ranked opponents this season and finished Big 12 action with a perfect 5-0 record. The last loss Parajova suffered in the spring came on Feb. 14 to then-No. 31 Kyle McPhillips of UCLA.
Scouting the Fighting Irish
Notre Dame is makes its 20th consecutive appearance and 22 nd overall in the NCAA Tournament. The Fighting Irish have a 34-21 all-time record in NCAA tournament matches and have won at least one match in 21 of its 22 all-time appearances.
The Fighting Irish are coming off a second-round loss to Florida State in the ACC Championships and boast a ranked doubles pair in No. 29 Quinn Gleason and Monica Robinson. Allison Miller, who has totaled a 22-10 record in singles action with one win coming over a ranked opponent, leads Notre Dame in singles action.
Scouting the Aggies
Texas A&M is making its 16th consecutive and 21st overall appearance in the NCAA Championship. 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.
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.
Scouting the Lady Braves
Alcorn State earned the Southwestern Athletic Conference automatic bid despite falling in the finals of the SWAC Championship to Southern University who was ineligible for postseason competition. This will be the fourth appearance for the Lady Braves and first since 2008.
All-Time Series
TCU and Notre Dame will be facing each other for only the third time in program history, with the Fighting Irish holding a 2-0 advantage in the series. This will be the second consecutive meeting that will take place at a neutral site.
The Frogs and Alcorn State have never faced each other in program history.
TCU and Texas A&M have met up on 44 previous occasions, with the Frogs holding a 23-21 series record advantage. The two teams faced each other earlier this season in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend, with TCU coming away with a 4-2 victory over the then-No. 11 Aggies.
Live Results
Live scoring of all the matches will be available at 12thman.com, with a final recap and results available on GoFrogs.com following the completion of the TCU competitions. In-match updates can also be found by following TCU women's tennis on twitter (@TCUWomensTennis).
