April 30, 2013
SAN DIEGO - The 39th-ranked San Diego State women's tennis team has earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Championship, the tournament selection committee announced Tuesday. The 2013 Mountain West regular-season champions will square off against No. 19 Baylor in the opening round on Friday, May 10, at 11 a.m. CT (9 a.m. PT), at Northwestern University's Christie Tennis Center in Evanston, Ill.
"We are very excited to return to the NCAA Championships," said 20th-year head coach Peter Mattera. "It is wonderful to see the NCAA recognize the team's fantastic season. We are ready to head to Chicago to face Baylor and compete for the national championship in women's tennis."
SDSU received an at-large berth after posting a stellar 22-5 record and a perfect 8-0 mark in conference play. The Aztecs claimed their first outright Mountain West regular-season crown since the 2002 campaign and nabbed the top seed in the league tournament. SDSU also recorded a 15-match win streak in 2013, while junior Laura Antonana Iriarte also found success this season, winning 13 consecutive matches in singles competition.
This will mark San Diego State's 22nd NCAA appearance since NCAA Championships for women's tennis began in 1982. The appearance will be the first for the Aztecs since 2009 when they fell to Washington, 4-0, at the Marks Tennis Center on the campus of USC.
SDSU will take on a Baylor team that finished its season with a 16-14 overall record and an 8-1 mark in Big 12 standings. The Bears and Aztecs have only met once before in 1993, when San Diego State topped Baylor, 9-0, in San Diego.
If the Aztecs defeat Baylor, they will face the winner of the matchup between host Northwestern and Illinois-Chicago on Saturday, May 11 with a start time slated for noon CT.