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Princeton University Athletics
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NCAA Notes: No. 33 Women's Tennis to Face No. 27 Virginia Friday
May 10, 2010 | Women's Tennis
Duke is the seeded team in the foursome, despite Virginia being the host, and the winners of the two first-round matches will play at 4 p.m. Saturday for the right to advance to the round of 16 to be played at Georgia.
Here are some notes on the Tigers and the other three teams at Virginia's regional:
-The Tigers set a program record with 20 dual-match victories this season against just five losses.
-Princeton went 10-3 against fellow ranked opponents this spring.
-Princeton will have been away from inter-team competition for 25 days by the time the NCAA first round match is played. The Tigers defeated Columbia on April 18 in their last match.
-The Tigers have been on the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's top-75 list all spring, starting out at No. 45 in January and rising as high as No. 27 in March. Princeton will enter the tournament at No. 33 in the nation and the highest ranked team north of Virginia and east of Michigan.
-The outright Ivy League title Princeton won this season is its first outright crown since 2000 after Princeton shared the Ivy title with Harvard in 2009.
-Princeton's back-to-back Ivy League titles in 2009 and 2010 are its first back-to-back league crowns since 1993 and 1994. Overall, Princeton has won nine Ivy titles: 1980, 1982, 1983, 1990, 1993, 1994, 2000, 2009 and 2010.
-It is the first time since 2006 that the Ivy League has had two teams in the NCAA tournament with Harvard going to Clemson to play Georgia. The Ivy League's last win in the NCAA tournament was also in 2006, when Penn beat Tennessee.
-Princeton and Virginia have met six times, with Virginia winning the last four. The teams have not met since 2006, and Princeton is 1-1 against the Cavaliers in Charlottesville after winning in 1976 and losing in 2006.
-The 2010 NCAA tournament will be Princeton's fourth. In 1983, the Tigers lost 9-0 to Stanford in New Mexico. In 2000, Princeton lost 5-1 to Tennessee at William & Mary. In 2009, Princeton lost 4-3 to Florida International in Miami.
-Both Princeton and Virginia only have one senior on their rosters, Melissa Saiontz for the Tigers and Jennifer Stevens for the Cavaliers.
-Princeton enters the NCAA tournament on a 10-match winning streak. Only the Tigers and Long Island won their final pre-tournament matches, as both Virginia and Duke lost in the ACC tournament quarterfinals.
-Princeton has one ITA-ranked singles player, Hilary Bartlett at No. 78 and one ranked doubles team, Bartlett and Taylor Marable at No. 27. Virginia also has one ranked singles player, Lindsey Hardenbergh at No. 57, and two ranked doubles teams: Jennifer Stevens and Hana Tomlijanovic at No. 25 and Hardenbergh and Erin Vierra at No. 51.
-For the second straight year, Bartlett and Marable have been invited to the NCAA doubles tournament. Last year, the pair became the first Princetonians to be invited to the NCAA singles or doubles tournament since 2002.
-The NCAA tournament will be a homecoming for Princeton assistant coach Amanda Rales, a 2009 Virginia alumna.
-Princeton and Virginia have had two common opponents this season, Marshall and North Carolina State. Both the Tigers and the Cavaliers defeated Marshall, while Princeton lost to the Wolfpack and Virginia picked up the win.
-Hilary Bartlett and Blakely Ashley have won their last 10 singles matches and were the only two Tigers to defeat all seven of their Ivy League opponents during the league season.
-Virginia (14-9) is ranked No. 27 by the ITA and is in the NCAA tournament for the second straight year after missing the tourney in 2008.
-Both Princeton head coach Megan Bradley and Virginia assistant Troy Porco were assistant coaches at Miami (Fla.), Porco in the 1990s and Bradley in 2008-09.
-Princeton and Duke have had three common opponents this season. Duke defeated Yale, N.C. State and Northwestern while the Tigers beat Yale and lost to N.C. State and Northwestern.
-Duke (19-7) ranked No. 10 by the ITA, has three ranked singles players (No. 34 Reka Zsilinszka, No. 47 Ellah Nze, No. 81 Elizabeth Plotkin) and three ranked doubles teams (No. 32 Amanda Granson and Nze, No. 38 Monica Gorny and Mary Clayton, No. 73 Plotkin and Zsilinszka).
-Princeton and Duke have met 12 times, with the Blue Devils winning nine. The series includes meetings in each of the last four seasons, won by Duke, under former head coach Kathy Sell, a 2004 Duke alumna.
-Long Island (14-3) received the automatic bid for winning the Northeast Conference tournament with victories on three straight days over Monmouth, Quinnipiac and Fairleigh Dickinson at the Mercer County Tennis Center in nearby West Windsor, N.J.
-The Blackbirds have one ITA-ranked singles player, Selma Babic at No. 121, and had one common opponent with Princeton this year in Columbia. The Tigers defeated the Lions to win the outright Ivy League title, while Columbia got past LIU.