The Northwestern women’s tennis team watched with baited breath as spot after spot in the NCAA tournament bracket went to other schools.
It was only in one of the final brackets that “Northwestern” popped up with a No. 7 next to it, eliciting high fives and a shout of, “Seven – that’s my lucky number,” from the squad.
The NCAA selection committee announced seventh-seeded NU (22-4) as one of 16 hosts for the four-team regionals, which will be held May 11-13. The Wildcats host the regionals, which consist of the first two rounds of the NCAAs, for the time in school history.
In Friday’s first-round action, NU will face Illinois-Chicago (15-8), while No. 24 Kentucky (13-10) will match up against No. 42 Virginia (11-10). Then on Sunday, the winners will battle for a ticket to Stone Mountain, Ga., where Georgia State will host the rest of the NCAAs.
Making the seeding even sweeter was hearing their draw from their coach, Claire Pollard. Attired in purple for the event, Pollard co-anchored the selection show over the Internet. She is the head of the selection committee.
Fresh off of their third consecutive Big Ten title, the Cats envision a bright future.
“Not to underestimate the teams in our bracket, but they haven’t done as well as some others,” senior Shannon Duffy said. “We have a great chance to beat our bracket. We knew we had the ranking to host.”
The Cats’ No. 7 seed in the nation and No. 2 seed in their bracket was better than they had hoped.
Being ranked seventh will mean the Cats will likely face the 10th seed, USC, in the round of 16. NU has already beaten the Trojans this season.
“We were a little surprised with the overall seeds,” Duffy said. “There are some easy brackets for some good teams. We have a great chance to make the Elite Eight.
“Maybe we’ll have a Cinderella shot at the Final Four.”
To get that far, NU will have to beat Georgia, the top-ranked team in the bracket. The Bulldogs – who beat top-seeded Stanford in the finals last year – are ranked No. 2 overall and will be playing in their backyards.
The other top seeds for the tournament are No. 1 Stanford, No. 3 Duke and No. 4 Florida.
The only person not shocked at the bracket was NU assistant coach Jennifer Lutgert – she knew the team’s draw for a few days.
Lutgert managed to keep the good news a secret from the team, even hinting that the Cats would be the one top-16 team that would not host a regional.
USC ended up getting sent all the way across the country to Old Dominion.
“We were very surprised,” said senior Colleen Cheng, who along with junior Lia Jackson also made the NCAA singles bracket. “The whole week, everyone thought we were going to get shipped.
“When we saw that USC had been shipped, the feeling was almost comparable to winning Big Tens.”
Cheng rated this year’s draw better than last year’s, in which the Cats were forced to play No. 1 Stanford in the Sweet 16.
The Cats lost that match 5-1, unable to keep pace with the Cardinal. But with home-court advantage on their side, the Cats are primed to make a further run this year.
“We’re just thinking about getting out of regionals,” Cheng said. “But why not? We can just win the whole thing.”
