2015 NCAA Tournament Bracket
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The Samford University women's tennis team held its 2015 NCAA Tournament Selection Show party Tuesday in the Coca-Cola Hospitality Suite of the Pete Hanna Center and learned it will face the No. 13-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide in the opening round of next weekend's NCAA Championships.
"This is a really good feeling," said Samford head coach
David Vest. "It took a lot of hard work to reach this point, but it's such an honor to coach at Samford and we are blessed with a lot of players who enjoy competing and winning. It's an honor to go and be able to play such a good team in Alabama and we're going to try to have fun and enjoy this entire process."
The contest will be held Friday, May 8, at 4 p.m. (CDT) in Tuscaloosa at the University of Alabama Tennis Stadium. Also joining
Samford (16-8) and
Alabama (17-7) at the four-team regional will be second-seeded Clemson and third-seeded South Alabama. Earlier this season, the Bulldogs played at South Alabama and dropped a hard-fought 5-2 non-conference showdown.
Samford has not faced Alabama since Feb. 22, 2009.
"We are so happy, because all of our hard work paid off and now we're in the NCAA Tournament," said senior
Yasmeen Ebada, who transferred to Samford from the University of Alabama. "We're going to want to go out and win, but our biggest goal this season was to win the SoCon Tournament. Now that we've accomplished that, we just want to have fun, relax and enjoy ourselves.
"It's going to be fun to see a lot of my old teammates, but out there on the court it's always going to be different, because everybody's trying to win. I'm still good friends with everybody over there, but ultimately it's all about tennis and doing our best against them."
The winner of the Bulldogs' contest with the Crimson Tide on Friday will square off against the victor between Clemson and South Alabama.
"This says a lot about our program and where we're at as a team and I'm extremely proud of this group of young ladies," Vest said. "It will mean a lot to be able to play close to home and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to get a lot of our fans out there to help cheer us on. We'll have fun with it and we're looking forward to it."
Samford earned its first Southern Conference Tournament championship Sunday by defeating ETSU, 4-1. The victory marked the Bulldogs' first women's tennis title since joining the league in 2009.
Samford has been victorious in 11 of its last 12 matches and owns a 10-0 record against league opponents this season.
"We're not trying to improve on anything at this point, but we are going to try to maintain where we're at right now," said Vest. "We've been playing some of our best tennis in the last three or four weeks, so we should be fine in our preparation and the main thing is for our team to play loose and to have some fun."
With Sunday's triumph, Samford extended its winning streak to six-consecutive matches and earned its trip to the 2015 NCAA Championship. The Bulldogs' last appearance occurred in 2008 when they were still a member of the Ohio Valley Conference. Samford was sent to the Tallahassee Regional that season and faced Florida State in the opening round of the tournament.
The Samford University women's tennis team will next be in action Friday at 4 p.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs square off against the No. 13-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide in the opening round of play in the 2015 NCAA Tournament. Friday's contest will be held at the Alabama Tennis Stadium located in Tuscaloosa.
2015 NCAA Tournament Bracket
