ACU to host regional tournaments

Wildcats to be top seeds in men's, women's tournaments

ABILENE -- As expected, the ACU men's and women's tennis teams will host their respective NCAA Division II Central Region tournaments next week at the Eager Tennis Center on the ACU campus.

Both teams will be the No. 1 seed in their respective tournaments, which will send the winners to the NCAA Division II national tournament, which this year will be played in conjunction with the NCAA Division II Spring Sports Festival, May 11-16, in Orlando, Fla.

Both ACU teams are the defending regional champion after winning the tournaments last year in Abilene.  The ACU women, in fact, will be trying to win their ninth straight regional championship.

Joining ACU in the women's tournament will be No. 2 seed Midwestern State (19-7), No. 3 seed Drury, Mo. (15-5) and No. 4 seed Rockhurst, Mo. (15-8).  The Wildcats will take on Rockhurst in Thursday's semifinals, while Midwestern State will play Drury. Friday's championship match will begin at 12:15 p.m.

The ACU women -- ranked No. 15 in the nation -- have been on a roll of late, improving to 26-6 on the season after winning the Lone Star Conference championship last week in Oklahoma City.  One day after winning the LSC title, ACU went to College Station where it lost a close 4-3 decision to Texas A&M, ranked No. 17 in the latest NCAA Division I rankings.

Only three teams will be in the men's tournament, which means as the No. 1 seed, ACU will receive a bye into Friday's championship match where it will await the winner of Friday's semifinal match between No. 2 seed St. Edwards (17-5) and No. 3 seed Rockhurst, Mo. (14-8).

The men's tournament could be tighter for the Wildcats than the women's tournament should be.  ACU is 2-0 this season against the other two teams in the men's field, but both of those wins were by 5-4 scores.  The Wildcats were 6-0 in such matches this season, including a 5-4 win over Cameron last week in the Lone Star Conference Tournament championship match.