May 3, 2001
ATLANTA – The Georgia Tech men’s and women’s tennis teams both received bids to the 2001 NCAA Championships, the NCAA Tennis Championship Committees announced Thursday afternoon.
The 27th-ranked Yellow Jacket men (16-6) earned their fourth bid to the NCAA Championship in the last five years and the 54th-ranked women’s team (11-11) is returning to the championship for the second-straight year after earning its first bid a year ago.
The men’s squad will stay close to home as it travels to Athens, Ga., for a matchup with the 38th-ranked Arizona Wildcats on Saturday, May 12. The women venture to California for the second year in a row and will face No. 30 UCLA on May 12 in Fresno.
“It’s nice that we’re going to be close to home,” Tech men’s coach Kenny Thorne said. “That was one of the things we were hoping for this year We hope we’ll have some local fans cheering us on. Obviously, you look forward to this time of year. It*s fun. This is what you work for all year.”
“We’re just tickled to be in the regional because that was one of our goals for the season,” Georgia Tech women’s coach Bryan Shelton said. “Obtaining that goals is great. I feel like we’ve got new life.”
Joining the Georgia Tech men in Athens will be Arizona, No. 2 Georgia and No. 58 Furman, with match times to be announced by Georgia. The match between UCLA and Georgia Tech will begin at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time, following the match between No. 11 Fresno State and Cal State Northridge at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The championship game of the women’s regional will begin at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, May 13.
