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

NAPERVILLE, Ill. -- For the second year in a row, College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW), women’s tennis teams 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 25-26 on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Ill., and Evergreen Racquet Club, which is located on the west side of Bloomington. The tournament will feature the top four teams from the 2007 CCIW Women’s Tennis Championship, which was held in October and won by Wheaton. Joining Wheaton are Carthage, Augustana and North Central.

Wheaton will be the No. 1 seed and will face No. 4 seed North Central while No. 2 seed Carthage will face No. 3 seed Augustana, with the winners of each match facing off for the automatic qualifier bid. The No. 2 vs. No. 3 match is set to begin at 11 a.m. on Friday, April 25, at Evergreen Racquet Club while the No. 1 vs. No. 4 match is slated for a 2 p.m. start on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan. The final match is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 26 at Evergreen Racquet Club.

The winner advances to the NCAA Tournament, which is set to begin Monday, April 30. This is the second 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 to the indoor courts at Evergreen Racquet Club in Bloomington, Ill., and held in conjunction with the CCIW Men’s Tennis Championship. All times are subject to change.