NCAA Tournament Regional Brackets
 
INDIANAPOLIS – The Slippery Rock University women's tennis team earned the No. 1 seed out of the Atlantic Region when the NCAA Women's Tennis Committee unveiled the National Championship bracket Monday night.
 
As the region's top seed, Slippery Rock receives an opening-round bye and the right to host a second-round match Saturday at the SRU Tennis Courts. The Rock will be making the program's 22nd all-time appearance in the NCAA Tournament, including the 17th trip to the national tournament in the last 20 seasons.
 
Of SRU's 22 NCAA Tournament appearances, 21 have come under the direction of head coach Matt Meredith. SRU has won at least one NCAA Tournament match in each of the last four years.
 
Slippery Rock entered last week's Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Tournament second in the Atlantic Region rankings. However, SRU made a dominant run to its first conference tournament title since 2003 with three consecutive 4-0 wins, including a championship match victory over Indiana University (Pa.), which came into the PSAC Tournament positioned first in the region, to become the top seed in the Atlantic Region.
 
Overall, seven teams from the Atlantic Region qualified for the NCAA Tournament. Slippery Rock, the University of Charleston (Mountain East Conference) and the University of Shaw (Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association) all earned automatic berths into the national field after winning their respective conference tournaments.
 
Receiving at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament out of the Atlantic Region were Indiana University (Pa.), Fairmont State University, Frostburg State University and West Virginia Wesleyan College.
 
In terms of seeding, behind Slippery Rock was No. 2 IUP, No. 3 Charleston, No. 4 Fairmont State, No. 5 West Virginia Wesleyan, No. 6 Frostburg State, No. 7 Shaw.
 
As the region's top seed, Slippery Rock will host two rounds in the NCAA Tournament at the SRU Tennis Courts. Fairmont State and West Virginia Weslyean play Friday with the winner moving on to the second round Saturday against Slippery Rock.
 
The second side of the regional will be hosted by second-seeded IUP. The Crimson Hawks and Shaw play one opening-round match with Charleston and Frostburg squaring off in the other bout.
 
SRU is 5-1 against the other Atlantic Region teams that made the NCAA Tournament with wins over West Virginia Wesleyan, Charleston, Fairmont State and Frostburg State as well as splitting two matches against IUP.
 
Comprised of 48 teams - 20 automatic berths and 28 at-large selections - spanning eight regions, the NCAA Tournament is a single-elimination bracket at 16 preliminary round regional sites this week with the champions from each regional location advancing to the Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex in Surprise, Arizona May 19-24 to determine the 2026 national champion.
 
The NCAA Tournament will run in a dual-match format with three doubles contests 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 points to clinch a match.
 
SRU is looking to make the final site of the NCAA Tournament for a second consecutive year, after advancing to the Round of 16 in 2025.
 
Slippery Rock enters the NCAA Tournament after what's been nothing short of a dominant season. On the way to winning the PSAC Tournament championship, SRU produced a 15-3 overall record, including a 15-2 mark against fellow Division II opponents.
 
As to be expected from a team that boasts a .833 winning percentage, Slippery Rock's roster is loaded with talent that has produced at the highest levels in both singles and doubles competition.
 
Five members of Slippery Rock's standard singles lineup all possess winning percentages of at least .720 in Amaia Balaguer Brau (21-7 / .750), Alissia Kivi (23-4 / .852), Nicole Kempton (19-6 / .760), Dari Sakhanova (16-6 / .727) and Nadia Rodewald (18-6 / .750).
 
The Rock has also won the doubles point in 17 of its 18 matches this year thanks to the pairings of Kivi / Kempton (20-11), Balaguer Brau / Slovak (20-4) and Rodewald / Sakhanova (22-2).
 
A full NCAA Tournament schedule and preview will be posted later in the week.
 




To stay up to date with all that happens at The Rock, follow our official Athletic Communication accounts on 'X' (formerly Twitter, @Rock_Athletics), Facebook (RockAthletics) and Instagram (RockAthletics).