No. 4 Seed Wolverines Picked to Host NCAA Regional

	Denise Muresan

May 4, 2010

• NCAA Championships Bracket

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- The No. 4-ranked University of Michigan women's tennis team received the No. 4 seed for the 2010 NCAA Division I Championship and will host an NCAA Regional Championship for the first time in school history, the NCAA announced as part of its selection show on Tuesday (May 4). U-M (22-4) will face Illinois-Chicago (20-3) in the first round, with No. 30 DePaul (18-5) and No. 34 Ohio State (19-9) rounding out the regional field. The first and second rounds of the NCAA Championship will take place at the Varsity Tennis Center next Friday and Saturday (May 14-15).

"It was a goal for us from the beginning of the season, to be in the top 16 and host a regional," head coach Ronni Bernstein said. "It is great for the girls, and it will be extra special to play in front of our fans. We have had such great fan support all season and look forward to having another opportunity to play at home. Hopefully, it will make the road a little easier to advance to the round of 16 for the first time in awhile, but our road is still tough. We know Ohio State well and DePaul and Illinois-Chicago have had great seasons."

It marks the ninth consecutive NCAA bid for the Wolverines, who won their second Big Ten championship this season after going 10-0 in conference action. U-M has won the most matches in program history (22) and garnered the program's highest ranking (No. 3) earlier this season.

Michigan features the Big Ten Player of the Year in junior Denise Muresan (Lincolnshire, Ill./Adlai E. Stevenson), who is the lone ranked Wolverine (No. 19), and the No. 19-ranked doubles pair in juniors Whitney Taney (Edina, Minn./Edina) and Rika Tatsuno (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif./Palos Verdes Peninsula).

The regional winner advances to the 16-team NCAA Championship field, which will compete for the national title May 21-25 at the University of Georgia's Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.

NCAA FIRST AND SECOND ROUNDS
(Varsity Tennis Center, Ann Arbor, Mich.)

Friday, May 14
#34 Ohio State vs. #30 DePaul, 11 a.m.
#4 Michigan vs. Illinois-Chicago, 2 p.m.