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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The Samford University women's tennis team will begin play in the 2015 NCAA Tournament on Friday at 4 p.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs square off against the 13^th-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide in the first round of the 64-team championship event. Samford's contest will be held at the University of Alabama Tennis Stadium.
 
"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," 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."
 
Also joining Samford (16-8) and Alabama (17-7) at the four-team regional will be second-seeded Clemson and third-seeded South Alabama. Clemson and South Alabama are scheduled to begin play in the tournament Friday at 1 p.m.
 
The Bulldogs' first-round matchup against Alabama will be its first 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 on Saturday at 1 p.m.
 
"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 on April 26 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."

Samford is in the midst of a six-match winning streak and earned its first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2008 when the Bulldogs 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.
 
SAMFORD'S N'TCHA BOASTS SOLID APRIL
On April 22, Samford's Stephanie N'tcha became the first tennis player in school history to be named the SoCon Player of the Year. The Bulldogs' senior native of Abomey-Calavi, Benin, proved to be a huge factor in Samford's undefeated conference season and its run to the 2015 SoCon Tournament title.
 
N'tcha closed out the month of April with a 5-3 record at No. 1 singles and a 7-2 mark in No. 1 doubles competition. Along with junior teammate Carita Moolman, N'tcha finished the month with a six-match winning streak in doubles play, which proved to be a key factor in Samford's SoCon championship.
 
N'tcha, one of the Bulldogs' senior leaders and top competitor this season, garnered First-Team All-SoCon honors in both singles and doubles play and finished league action with an unblemished 5-0 record on court No. 1.
 
SCOUTING THE COMPETITION
Alabama enters the NCAA Tournament with a 17-7 record, including an 8-5 mark against Southeastern conference opponents. The Crimson Tide has been anchored all season by dominant doubles play, winning 19 of 23 possible doubles points thus far.
 
Reigning NCAA doubles champions Erin Routliffe and Maya Jansen landed atop the national doubles rankings to conclude regular season play. Alabama's No. 1 duo carried a perfect 15-0 record into week nine of the conference season and currently own a commanding 18-1 (9-1 SEC) record for the dual-match season.
 
Alabama also has the top half of its singles lineup ranked nationally, including Routliffe (38) and Jansen (58). The pair has combined for 26 individual victories. Sophomore Danielle Spielmann (72) is also nationally ranked.
 
The winner of Friday's NCAA Tournament opening-round contest will advance to Saturday's Round of 32 and will face either second-seeded Clemson or the third-seeded South Alabama Jaguars at 1 p.m., at the Alabama Tennis Stadium.

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