Tigers to Open NCAA Tournament Friday Against Illinois

For the fourth time in the last five years, the Princeton women's tennis team will compete in the NCAA tournament, this time heading to Lubbock, Texas, to take on Illinois.

The match is set for a 10 a.m. local time, 11 a.m. ET start Friday at Texas Tech. Live results will be available here.

Princeton is ranked No. 47 by the ITA and No. 24 by the USTA. Illinois is No. 19 in both rankings. No. 11 (ITA)/12 (USTA) Texas Tech and Army West Point will meet following the Princeton-Illinois match, with the winners meeting in the second round Saturday at 1 p.m. local time/2 p.m. ET.

The Tigers' 19-3 record ties this year's team for the second-most wins in program history behind the 2010 team's 20 wins, and regardless of the NCAA tournament outcome, Princeton will have its fewest losses since going 11-2 in 2000. Princeton went 7-0 in the Ivy League for the fourth time in program history, along with 2000, 2010 and 2014.

Princeton and Illinois have met twice, in 2008 in a 4-3 Tiger win in Puerto Rico and in 2012 in a 4-0 Illinois win in Alabama. Princeton has never met Texas Tech or Amy West Point.

While there are no Texans among the Tiger players, the roster has an Illinois native in Tiffany Chen from Naperville and in head coach Laura Granville, from Chicago. Assistant coach Elizabeth Begley, a Houston native, is an alumna of Texas Tech's Big 12 foe Texas and spent a year as a volunteer assistant coach at Baylor in 2014-15.

Along with Granville as the Ivy Coach of the Year for the third time in the award's four-year history, Princeton counts senior Katrine Steffensen and a first-team All-Ivy singles honoree and rookie Stephanie Schrage as a second-team All-Ivy singles honoree.

The NCAA appearance will be Princeton's eighth overall, along with 1983, 2000, 2009-10 and 2014-16. Princeton's first NCAA team tournament win came in Granville's first NCAA trip with the team when the Tigers beat Arizona State 4-3 at Alabama. Since then, Princeton fell 4-3 at Virginia in 2015 and 4-1 to Georgia Tech at South Carolina two years ago.

Illinois comes in at 21-5 overall and 9-3 in the Big Ten, winning one match in the Big Ten tournament to make that bracket's semifinals. Illinois counts Jaclyn Switkes as the 74th-ranked singles player in the country and Mia Rabinowitz as the 105th, while Daniela Pedraza Novak and Sasha Belaya are the 80th-ranked doubles duo. Switkes was an All-Big Ten honoree this year while Illini skipper Evan Clark was the Big Ten Coach of the Year after Illinois went 14-13 a year ago and missed the NCAA tournament.

Princeton and the Illini have had six common opponents this season, each defeating all of them, including Maryland, Rutgers, Indiana, Penn State, Yale and Auburn.

Should the Red Raiders advance, the Princeton-Illinois winner will take on a Texas Tech team that counts four ITA-ranked singles players including No. 21 Gabriela Talaba, No. 58 Felicity Maltby, No. 106 Sabrina Federici and No. 120 Katelyn Jackson. Federici and Sarah Dvorak are the 28th-ranked doubles duo in the nation.

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