CCIW Women's tennis teams to compete in automatic qualifier tournament

NAPERVILLE, Ill. -- For the first time in the history of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW), the women’s tennis teams of the CCIW will take part in a four-team tournament to determine the conference’s automatic qualifier for the NCAA’s national tournament.

The automatic qualifier tournament will take place April 27-28 on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Ill., and will feature the top four teams from the 2006 CCIW Women’s Tennis Championship, which was held in October and won by Wheaton. Joining Wheaton are Carthage, Illinois Wesleyan and Augustana.

Wheaton will be the No. 1 seed and will face No. 4 seed Augustana, while No. 2 seed Carthage will face No. 3 seed Illinois Wesleyan, with the winners of each match facing off for the championship. The No. 1 vs. No. 4 match is set to begin at noon on Friday, April 27, at Illinois Wesleyan, while the No. 2 vs. No. 3 match is slated for a 3 p.m. start. The championship match is scheduled for noon on Saturday, April 28 at Illinois Wesleyan.

The championship winner advances to the NCAA Tournament, which is set to begin Monday, April 30. This will be the first season that the conference will be given an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship as the NCAA approved automatic qualifiers for tennis in January 2005, effective with the 2006-07 season.

In the event of bad weather, the tournament will be moved indoors to Evergreen Racquet Club in Bloomington and held in conjunction with the CCIW Men’s Tennis Championship. All times are subject to change.