May 12, 2005

NEW ORLEANS, La. - After claiming its third consecutive Conference USA championship and winning 21 of its last 22 matches, the Tulane women's tennis begins its quest for a national title on Friday afternoon when it hosts Southeastern Louisiana in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at noon at Goldring Tennis Center.

In its third NCAA appearance in as many years, Tulane enters Friday's contest with a 23-5 mark and ranked No. 16 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). Meanwhile, Southeastern Louisiana (19-6) will make its first NCAA Tournament showing after earning the Southland Conference's automatic bid with a 4-0 win over Texas-Arlington. In the other half of the bracket, two at-large selections, No. 18 TCU (20-4) and No. 44 LSU (12-11) will take the court at 3:30 on Friday afternoon.

The winning teams will meet at noon on Saturday on the Goldring Courts with the winner advancing to the NCAA Round of 16 in Athens, Ga. Tickets for Friday's matches are $5 for adults and $3 for children under 18 and college students from participating schools with a valid student ID.

"Southeastern beat a very good Texas-Arlington team for the Southland Conference championship," Tulane head coach David Schumacher said. "We haven't seen them play, but we have respect for what Coach (Jason) Hayes has done. He's new and has restored the program, getting it back into the national rankings. We cannot overlook Southeastern."

Depth throughout the Green Wave lineup has been a key to Tulane's success all season, which was illustrated as Tulane placed five players on the All-Conference USA team.

First-team selection Maria Ivanov has compiled an overall mark of 11-19 at the top spot in the singles lineup, and has been ranked as high as No. 28 in doubles play with her sister, Darya. At the No. 2 spot, Jenny Kuehn, who has been selected to compete in the NCAA Singles Championship, also was a first team all-conference pick and has been ranked by the ITA as high as 37th in singles and 29th in doubles with partner Julie Smekodub. A two-time C-USA Player of the Year and a member of the league's All-Decade Team, Kuehn has won 19 singles matches, 14 of which have come in straight sets. In doubles play Kuehn and Smekodub have won their last 14 matches and have amassed a mark of 20-3 on the season.

The Wave's No. 3 and 4 players, Smekodub and Darya Ivanov, were named second team All-Conference USA while Nancy Kockott received third team honors. In addition, the Ivanov sister tandem was named Most Outstanding Doubles Team of the Conference Tournament and earned a berth in the NCAA Doubles Championship.

Tulane, which is hosting an NCAA Regional for the first time in school history, experienced its most successful postseason run last in 2004 when it advanced to the Round of 16 before bowing out to Miami. Prior to last year, the Green Wave had advanced to the second round in 2001 and 2003.

The Lions, ranked No. 72 by the ITA, bring an 11-match winning streak into Friday's contest and are led by freshman Emilija Arnaudovska. In singles play, Arnaudovska has notched a 20-3 record during her rookie campaign, which is the third-highest win total in Southeastern history. She holds the record for doubles wins in a season as the Lion pair of Arnaudovska and Zdenka Puflerova have a mark of 17-3 in dual matches.

"We are very excited to be hosting this weekend," Schumacher added. "There is some relief that final exams are over and now our focus can be on tennis."