MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The Middle Tennessee men's tennis team, fresh off its first-ever Sun Belt Conference Championship, learned its opponent in the NCAA Tournament today as announced on ESPNews. The team, along with a bunch of Blue Raider faithful, watched intently at Toot's Restaurant in Murfreesboro.
Video: Coach McNamara Interview The Blue Raiders earned a number three seed and will face Boise State on May 8 in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The Blue Raiders are 2-2 all-time against the Broncos. If the Blue Raiders win they will meet the winner of the Furman/Alabama match on May 9.
This marks Middle Tennessee's sixth NCAA Tournament appearance in the last 10 years and eighth appearance overall.
"I'm excited to have a three seed and to be playing Boise State," head coach David McNamara said Tuesday. "Of all the draws, we couldn't have asked for much more. Now we can get serious and focus for our weekend."
"We have a young team and most of these guys hadn't experienced the pressure of a conference tournament before this year," McNamara said of his team. "We are 57th in the country and all we want is the opportunity to play these teams. We have a good chance to play well against Boise State."
"We put ourselves in a bad position in the tough [SBC semi-final] match against Denver," sophomore John Peers said. "We learned that we can get ourselves out of any situation. Even if we get down on ourselves we can still get the job done." Peers was selected as the Most Outstanding Performer at the Sun Belt Championships earlier this month.
David McNamara, the 2009 Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year, is making his first-ever NCAA Tournament as a head coach but his fifth overall. McNamara was a player for the Blue Raiders in their first three NCAA trips in 1995, 1996 and 1997, and was an assistant coach on the 2005 team.
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