Lady Bulldogs Earn NCAA Bid; Take On Pepperdine
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Fresh off one of the greatest seasons in school history, which included an SEC Western Division championship, the 26th-ranked Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs earned a trip to the 2005 NCAA Tennis Championships to take on 40th-ranked Pepperdine in the opening round. Regional host and fifth-ranked Georgia Tech and 71st-ranked Winthrop round out the four-team field in Atlanta, Ga.
For the Lady Bulldogs, it is the first time since the 2001 season that State has played in an NCAA match and the fourth time head coach Tracy Lane has guided her Lady Bullodgs into NCAA competition. The ninth-year head coach owns a 3-3 record in NCAA matches and has advanced past the opening game in all three of her previous appearances.
"Today was a big day for us and we are really thrilled about going to Atlanta to play Pepperdine," Lane said. "All the hard work paid off and it just says a lot about what the girls accomplished this year."
The Lady Bulldogs take the court Friday, May 13, (start time yet to be determined) to take on West Coast Conference foe, Pepperdine, for only the second time in school history. The Waves own a 1-0 all-time advantage over the Lady Bulldogs after posting a 6-0 victory during the1989 season in the Wildcat Invitational in Tucson, Ariz. This season, Pepperdine finished the season ranked No. 40 after posting a 14-8 overall record en route to the claiming the WCC Tournament title for the 14th time in the last 15 seasons.
State punched its ticket to regional play following an outstanding season in which the Lady Bulldogs recorded a 12-7 overall record, 5-6 in the league, earning an SEC Western Division crown. MSU's five conference wins were the most since the 1989 campaign and were an all-time high for Lane during her nine-year stint at MSU. Her 12 overall wins also succeeded her previous total of 11 which she set during the 2000 season, finishing 11-11.
Along the way, the Lady Bulldogs went 9-1 at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre, posting upset wins over then 26th-ranked Alabama and 19th-ranked Tennessee. In SEC Tournament play, the Lady Bulldogs advanced into the quarterfinal round for the first time since the 2001 campaign, falling just short of their first trip to the semifinals as they fell 4-1 to third-ranked Kentucky in the quarters.
If the Lady Bulldogs advance past Pepperdine, they would play the winner of Winthrop University and No. 6 seed Georgia Tech on Saturday (start time yet to be determined). MSU joins nine other SEC schools in the field of 64, sending a conference-best 10 schools into NCAA play.