WALNUT CREEK, Calif. – Four women’s and three men’s teams advanced to the third round of the NCAA Division I Tennis Championships after the first two rounds of play concluded this past weekend.On the men’s side, top-seeded USC remains in the running for another national title after beating Idaho in the first round, 4-0, then defeating Oklahoma State, 4-1, in the second round. No. 6 UCLA also advanced to the third round of competition after two spotless victories, knocking out Cal Poly in the first round and San Diego in the second round, both with 4-0 scores. CALIFORNIA is the final Pac-12 men’s team in the tournament as the Golden Bears opened NCAA play with a 4-0 win over Texas Tech before pulling off a huge, 4-3 upset of Texas A&M in the second round. Cal picked up the doubles point and held on to the lead to upset the eighth-seeded Aggies on their home court for Texas A&M’s first home loss of the season. Losses in the first round for the Pac-12 men included STANFORD falling to Tulsa, 4-2, and OREGON dropping its match to NC State, also with a score of 4-2.
For the women, No. 5 UCLA is the highest seed from the Pac-12 still intact through the first two rounds of play, opening the tournament with dominating 4-0 victories over Sacramento State and Mississippi. Joining the Bruins in the third round will be sixth-seeded CALIFORNIA, which also posted consecutive shutout wins over Fairleigh Dickinson and Pepperdine. The Bears will face Pac-12 rival STANFORD in the third round as the Cardinal blanked both Quinnipiac and Long Beach State to advance. The lone Pac-12 team to suffer a blemish on the weekend was No. 16 USC, which opened with a 4-0 win over Idaho before defeating Michigan with a score of 4-2. Losses for the Pac-12 women included Arizona barely falling to Florida State, 4-3, and Arizona State losing to Princeton by the same close score of 4-3.
The third round for the men’s and women’s tennis championships will take place in Athens, Ga. In the women’s competition, all teams will compete on May 15, beginning with the match between Stanford and California at 12 p.m. ET. USC follows with a match against top-seeded Georgia at approximately 4 p.m. ET, and UCLA closes out the day for the Pac-12 women against No. 12 Miami at 7 p.m. ET. For the men, the Trojans will face 16th-seeded Columbia and California takes on ninth-seeded Texas with both matches slated for a 9 a.m. ET start. UCLA will play against Tennessee with a tentative start time of 7 p.m. ET.
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