SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's tennis team opens 2023 NCAA Tournament competition 4 p.m. Monday against Fairmont State University at the Greensburg Racquet Club in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
 
MATCH 24 DETAILS
Opponent: Fairmont State University
Date: Monday – 4 p.m.
Location: Greensburg, Pennsylvania – Greensburg Racquet Club
Live Results: Link
All-Time Series: SRU leads 7-1
Last Played: Sept. 23, 2002 (SRU won 6-3)

NCAA TOURNAMENT SCORING
The NCAA Tournament will run in a dual-match format with three doubles teams followed by six singles matches. The doubles matches will be played as three, six-game pro sets with a seven-point tiebreaker at six-all. Singles matches will be run as six best-of-three sets matches. Teams that win two of the three doubles matches earn a point. Each singles match earns a team one point. Teams must win four or more points to win a match.
 
NCAA TOURNAMENT STRUCTURE
The NCAA Tournament is comprised of 48 teams, 20 automatic berths and 28 at-large selections, spanning eight regions. The teams will play a single-elimination tournament at 16 preliminary round regional sites May 1-2 with the champions from each regional location advancing to USTA National Campus Collegiate Center in Orlando, Florida May 11-16 to determine the 2023 national champion.
 
Overall, seven teams from the Atlantic Region qualified for the NCAA Tournament. The University of Charleston and Indiana University (Pa.) garnered automatic bids, and ultimately the top two seeds in the region, after winning the Mountain East Conference and Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference tournaments, respectively, while The Rock, West Virginia State, West Liberty and Fairmont State received at-large berths.
 
Shaw University, the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Tournament champions, are seeded seventh.
 
As the No. 3 seed, Slippery Rock will face No. 6 seed Fairmont State in the opening round 2 p.m. May 1 in Indiana, Pennsylvania. If victorious, Slippery Rock will advance to face the winner of the IUP-Shaw match in the second round on May 2.
 
In the other Atlantic Region bracket, top-seeded Charleston will square off against the winner of the West Virginia State-West Liberty first round match on May 2 as well.
 
SRU NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY
Slippery Rock will be making its 19th NCAA Tournament appearance all-time, the most of any team in the PSAC. SRU has now earned national tournament berths 14 times in the last 17 years under the direction of head coach Matt Meredith, who has been in charge of the program for 18 of The Rock's NCAA Tournament appearances overall.
 
SRU has won three regional championships (2010, 2008, 2003). The Rock's best showing in the NCAA Tournament came in 2010 when they advanced to the national quarterfinals before falling to Lynn. Overall, Slippery Rock has won 13 matches in the NCAA Tournament all-time.
 
A year ago, Slippery Rock won its first-round match via a 4-0 decision against West Liberty before falling to top-seeded IUP, 4-0, in the second round.
 
HOW THEY GOT HERE
Slippery Rock earned an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament after a great 2023 season in which it went 15-8 overall, 14-6 against Division II opponents and a near perfect 5-1 in PSAC West competition while advancing to the championship match of the PSAC Tournament for a second consecutive year.
 
Sixth-seeded Fairmont State earned the program's first berth into the national tournament following a season that saw the Falcons produce a 13-6 overall record and advance to the MEC Tournament semifinals where they lost 4-0 to top-seeded Charleston.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES
Slippery Rock and Fairmont State have played just eight times in series history with the last contest between the two coming all the way back in 2002. Overall, SRU is 7-1 against FSU.
 
SLIPPERY ROCK PRIMER
Stats: Link
Roster: Link
Overall Record: 15-8
Atlantic Region Seed: 3rd
Home Record: 5-2
Away Record: 8-3
Neutral Site Record: 2-3
Streak: L1
Last Five Matches: 3-2
Head Coach: Matt Meredith | 25th season at SRU (362-205)
 
SCOUTING THE ROCK
• Slippery Rock features a deep and balanced lineup that includes five key veterans of the program, all of whom possess past NCAA Tournament experience, along with two outstanding newcomers.
 
• SRU's lineup is spearheaded by seniors Adriana Gonzalez Sanchez and Gabriela del Val del Toro. Gonzalez Sanchez anchors The Rock's standard singles rotation from the top flight. So far this year, she has won 18 matches and has gone 12-10 in the first flight. Gonzalez Sanchez has been stellar as of late with seven wins in her last nine matches.
 
• del Val del Toro is in the midst of one of the best individual seasons in program history. She enters the NCAA Tournament sporting a 28-7 overall record that includes a 19-4 showing out of the second flight.
 
• Dari Sakhanova, one of two first-year athletes on the roster, joined Slippery Rock at the start of the spring semester and immediately solidified herself in The Rock's lineup by going 14-7 out of the third flight.
 
• Nuria Martin Lopez joins del Val del Toro as a 20-match winner. Another of program's reliable returners, Martin Lopez has had a career-year in 2023 as evidenced by her 21-11 overall record and her 14-6 mark in the fourth flight. One of the many highlights of her season was a 10-match winning streak that lasted nearly the whole month of April.
 
• The trio of Tina Slovak, Georgie Lancaster and Teddi Isherwood have split time throughout the backend of Slippery Rock's singles lineup this season and proven more than capable of recording big victories when called upon.
 
• Lancaster is 9-9 overall in dual matches this year, and 8-7 out of the sixth flight. Slovak, The Rock's other freshman, is 7-4 when playing from the fifth flight. Isherwood has come on strong in the later stages of her sophomore campaign with three victories in each of her last three appearances in SRU's lineup.
 
• A key component to Slippery Rock's success this season has been its outstanding results in doubles play. Of its 20 matches against fellow Division II opponents, SRU has earned the team doubles point on 17 occasions.
 
• Isherwood and Gonzalez Sanchez spent parts of the season in the ITA's national doubles rankings. In their first seasons as partners, The Rock's No. 1 doubles pairing have compiled a 13-8 record.
 
• Martin Lopez and del Val del Toro have gone 21-11 as a duo in 2022-23. In team play, they compete from the second flight and have gone 15-6.
 
• The rookie pairing of Slovak and Sakhanova have combined to post a nearly perfect 16-3 record out of the third flight.
 
FAIRMONT STATE PRIMER
Stats: Link
Roster: Link
Overall Record: 13-6
Atlantic Region Seed: 6th
Home Record: 7-1
Away Record: 5-2
Neutral Site Record: 1-3
Streak: L1
Last Five Matches: 3-2
Head Coach: Terry Deremer | Second season at FSU (19-15)
 
PROBABLE LINEUP (DUAL MATCH RECORD)
Singles
1-Maria Fonseca (14-3)
2-Ainara Pastor Garcia (11-7)
3-Luiza Parreira (6-7)
4-Elodie Buclin (12-5)
5-Emme McKnight (7-7)
6-Candela Sevilla (11-5)
Doubles
1-Buclin / Fonseca (9-4)
2-McKnight / Garcia (12-4)
3-Parreira / Sevilla (8-3)
 
UP NEXT
A win over Fairmont State sends The Rock into the second round of the NCAA Tournament where it would play either Indiana or Shaw 12 p.m. Tuesday for a regional title and the right to advance to the third round at the USTA National Campus Collegiate Center in Orlando, Florida May 11.
 
  


 
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