The Franciscan University women's tennis team is headed to Chicago, IL for the 2017 NCAA tournament and winning the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference in the fall. The Lady Barons will square off against Kenyon in the first round match at 3:00 pm.
Franciscan finished its regular season 12-4 overall and 8-0 in the AMCC to earn the No. 1 seed in the tournament in October. After defeating Penn St. Altoona 5-2 in the semifinals, the Lady Barons defeated Penn St. Behrend 5-2 for the conference title and the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
This year marks the second trip to the tournament for the Lady Barons, last playing at the national level in 2015. Franciscan will face Kenyon for the first time in program history.
The Franciscan squad features several all-conference performers in both singles and doubles. Leading the way is senior Claire Haddad. Haddad is currently 10-5 at No. 4 singles and 4-9 in No. 1 doubles for the year. She was named first team all-conference at No. 4 singles. Fellow senior Erin Coyne went 4-1 at No. 5 singles and 6-4 at No. 6 for the year and earned first team all-conference honors for her work this year.
At top of the lineup is the dynamic freshman duo of Madelyn Conrad and Grace Hammel. The two went 11-2 at No. 2 doubles for the season and were named first-team all-conference performers. Individually, Conrad went 7-6 at No. 1 singles and Hammel 8-4 at No. 3 singles and Hammel earned second team all-conference honors in singles in the fall.
Junior Maggie Vander Woude has been a consistent force for the Lady Barons and went 6-4 at No. 5 singles this year and earned second team all-conference honors. Vander Woude also earned first team all-conference honors at No. 3 doubles this year with sophomore partner Taranee Karimpour, who is studying abroad this semester.
Joining the team this spring after the fall semester abroad is sophomore Julia Razook. Razook went 1-2 at No.3 singles in the spring and will team up with Vander Woude at No. 2 doubles after they won the only match the played together in this spring.
Franciscan's 14 wins set the program's record for most wins in a season as the Lady Barons look to build on that total on Friday.
The winner of the Kenyon/Franciscan match will play the winner of the Gustavus Adolphus/St. Norbert match at 2:00 pm Saturday.
NCAA Regional Schedule
Friday
Match 1 – Augustana vs. Coe – 9:00 am
Match 2 – Gustavus Adolphus vs. St. Norbert – 12:00 pm
Match 3 – Kenyon vs. Franciscan – 3:00 pm (live stats)
Saturday
Match 4 – University of Chicago vs. Match 1 winner – 10:00 am
Match 5 – Match 2 winner vs. Match 3 winner – 2:00 pm
Sunday
Match 6 – Regional Championship match – 12:00 pm