No. 31 Women's Tennis Opens NCAAs Against No. 49 W&M Saturday

NCAA First Round
Saturday, May 9: No. 31 Dartmouth (18-5) vs. No. 49 William & Mary (16-6)
Time: 9 a.m.
Location: Chapel Hill, N.C. – Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center

THIS WEEKEND
The Dartmouth women's tennis team will make its NCAA debut as it travels to North Carolina for the Chapel Hill Regional of the NCAA Championship, which begins on Saturday, May 9. The No. 31 Big Green will take on No. 49 William & Mary in the opening round of the championship.

LET'S REWIND A BIT
An awful lot has been happening in the world of Dartmouth women's tennis recently. On April 25, the Green wrapped up Ivy League play with a 5-2 victory over Harvard, ending up second in the conference with a record of 5-2 and finishing behind Princeton with a 6-1 mark. Three short days later, Dartmouth was announced as one of the 64 teams who qualified for the NCAA Championship, receiving an at-large for the first time in program history. The next two days brought even more exciting news for the Big Green: Taylor Ng was named the league's Player of the Year, the first for Dartmouth since 1999. She earned an automatic spot on the first team for singles and also appeared on the doubles first team alongside Kristina Mathis. The following day, Ng became the first Dartmouth women's tennis player to qualify for the NCAA singles championship, which will take place two weeks at the close of the doubles tournament (May 20-25 in Waco, Texas).

SCOUTING THE TRIBE
William & Mary earned its 20th NCAA bid thanks to its 23rd Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) title back on April 21. The Tribe also did well with postseason awards, as Leeza Nemchinov was named the CAA Player of the rnd the Most Outstanding Player at the CAA Championship, while Olivia Thaler was tabbed as Rookie of the Year. The Tribe was ranked as high as No. 28 during the year and recently jumped back into the national top 50 last week, moving up to 49th in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings that were released on May 1.

SERIES HISTORY
This will be just the second time that the two teams have met and the first since a 5-3 W&M victory over Dartmouth at the ITA Team Finals in October of 1992. Although the Big Green and the Tribe last played before any member of either team was born, they are familiar with one another, as both teams competed at the Tribe Invitational in September and the Yale Bulldog Invitational in October.

SCHEDULE/TICKET INFO
The Chapel Hill Women's Tennis Regional will be Saturday, May 9 and Sunday, May 10, at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center. After the Dartmouth/W&M match at 9 a.m. and the UNC/Quinnipiac tilt at noon on Saturday, the regional final will take place at 1 p.m. on Sunday, with the winner advancing to the NCAA Round of 16 at Baylor. Tickets for the event are $5 for adults and $3 for students and seniors. Children 6 & under are free. Tickets will be good for all matches, both men and women, on a single day. Gates will open one-hour prior to play on both Saturday and Sunday.