April 29, 1998

THE EVENT: The University of Notre Dame will play host to the 1998 NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Championship from May 21-29, 1998. The championship will take place at the Courtney Tennis Center and the Eck Tennis Pavilion.

THE FORMAT: The championship consists of three different tournaments – a team tournament with 16 teams, a singles tournament with 64 players and a doubles tournament with 32 duos.

The team tournament consists of the top 10 teams in the country, which receive automatic bids while the six other teams are winners of NCAA regional tournaments.

The 10 teams that receive automatic bids will be announced on Wednesday, May 6. The regional tournaments will be held on college campuses from Friday-Monday, May 15-17. The Midwest regional will be held at the University of Illinois. The selections for the individual tournaments will be made by the NCAA selection committee on Thursday, May 7.

THE HISTORY: Women’s tennis has been an NCAA sport since 1982 and Stanford has won the championship nine times, including a victory over Florida in last year’s final. The Cardinal has won the event in 1982, ’84, ’86, ’87, ’88, ’89, ’90, ’91 and ’97.

Other previous winners include USC (1983, ’85), Florida (’92, ’96), Texas (’93, ’95) and Georgia (’94).

Lilia Osterloh of Stanford was last year’s singles champion while Dawn Buth and Stephanie Nickitas of Florida won the past two doubles championships.

NOTRE DAME IN THE NCAAS: Notre Dame has advanced to the NCAA team tournament four times (1993, ’94, ’96, ’97). Last season, Notre Dame lost in the regional semifinals to Wisconsin. Notre Dame advanced to the national quarterfinals in 1996.

The Irish have sent at least one performer to the NCAA singles championship since 1989.

NCAA TENNIS AT NOTRE DAME: National tennis championships are no strangers to Notre Dame as the school played host to the NCAA men’s tournament in 1971 and 1994. Notre Dame played host to an NCAA men’s regional in 1994, 1995 and 1996 and a women’s regional in 1997. Notre Dame will host a NCAA men’s regional this year on May 15-17.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: Volunteers of all ages are needed to staff the 1998 NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Championship. There are a wide variety of volunteer duties that the general public can be involved in and boys and girls can volunteer as ball people for the event. For information on volunteering any amount of time at the event, please call Jen Rouse in the Notre Dame athletic department at 219-631-3253.

TICKETS AVAILABLE: Tickets are now on sale for the 1998 NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Championship. All-session tournament passes are priced at $45 each for adults and $25 for students, youth under 16 and college students.

Individual session passes are priced at $7 for adults and $5 for students, youth under 16 and senior citizens.

For more information, call the Notre Dame ticket office at 219-631-7356.