April 28, 2009

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Top-ranked and unbeaten Virginia is the No. 1 overall seed in the 2009 NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championships for the second straight year and will be one of seven Atlantic Coast Conference teams competing for the national title when play begins on Friday, May 8.

Duke, Florida State, Miami, North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest are the other ACC teams among the 64-team field, which was announced late Tuesday afternoon. Florida State is the No. 16 overall seed and will join Virginia as a host school for the first two rounds.

This marks the sixth straight year at least seven ACC teams have been selected for the NCAA men’s field. Seven teams were also chosen a year ago, and a league-record 10 teams received berths in 2007.

Virginia (29-0) will take on Navy (16-7) on May 8 at Charlottesville, Va. Fellow ACC member North Carolina (16-10) was also assigned to the site as an at-large team and will face South Carolina (15-10). The winners will meet in the second round on Saturday, May 9.

Florida State (19-8), a host team for the third straight year, drew a first-round date with Jacksonville State (21-2). Duke (15-8), ranked 23rd and appearing in the NCAA tourney the 18th straight year, will face Radford (20-3) at Knoxville, Tenn.

No. 24 Virginia Tech (14-7) will meet UNC Wilmington (19-5) at Athens, Ga., while No. 18 Wake Forest (20-9) meets Northwestern (18-8) at Lexington, Ky.

No. 22 Miami (14-8) remains within the state of Florida for a first-round match against Columbia (16-5) at Gainesville.

This is the sixth consecutive year that Virginia has received a seed and hosted a regional. Virginia is the only school to be a top-eight seed in the NCAA Tournament in each of the past six seasons. In each of the past five years, the Cavaliers won first and second round matches at home to advance as one of 16 regional winners to the NCAA Championships.

North Carolina will be appearing in the NCAA Tournament for the 10th straight year, while Wake Forest will be making its ninth straight trip. Miami will be in the tournament for the fourth straight year and Virginia Tech the third.

Second-round matches will be held at each of the 16 regional campus sites May 9 and 10. This year’s regional winners will advance to team championship May 14-19 at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center on the campus of Texas A&M.