RICHMOND, Va. – The famous "Tobacco Road"
better be prepared for an influx of black and gold in a two
weekends. Both the Virginia Commonwealth University men's and
women's tennis teams will be headed that way for the opening
rounds of the 2010 NCAA Tournament.
The 25th-ranked women's squad will be the number two seed in
the North Carolina Regional and face UNLV in the first round, while
the men's team travels to Duke to take on the 16th-ranked
Blue Devils.
"We're excited about playing again," Head Coach
Paul Kostin said. "It'll be almost a
month since we finished the CAA Championships and we're all
ready to get back to the courts. Just like every match, we're
going there for one purpose and that's to win, nothing
else."
Led by Colonial Athletic Association Rookie of the Year
Josefin Hjertquist (Spanga, Sweden) and All-CAA
First-Team Singles honoree Kateryna Yergina (Kiev,
Ukraine), the women's team racked up a 20-4 record
en route to its third conference title under Kostin.
This will be the fifth consecutive, and 10th overall, NCAA
Tournament appearance for the Black & Gold. In 2006, the Rams
reached the Sweet 16 and the furthest VCU has ever reached was the
quarterfinals in 2002.
"I'm very proud of this group of girls," Kostin
said. "We've got a bunch of girls that have showed me
toughness and have really overachieved this year."
CAA Player of the Year Thibaut Charron (Sens,
France) will lead the men's squad to its 17th NCAA
tournament appearance in the past 18 years. The fourth-year
standout enters the tournament as the 25th-ranked player in the
country after posting a 23-6 record on the year. He led the Black
& Gold to three straight decisive wins in the CAA Tournament to
earn the league's automatic berth.
Charron will be joined by All-CAA honorees Tim Johanssen
(Hohenlockstedt, Germany) and
Krisztian Kroscko (Budapest, Hungary), both in
their first years with the Rams.
Exact times and dates will be released tomorrow.
