Bracket

MADISON, N.J. - For the second year in a row and the third time in school history, the Drew University women's tennis team will compete in the NCAA Division III Championships when it joins five other teams in a first, second, and third-round pod at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont from Friday through Sunday.

The Rangers (18-2) will take on undefeated Hunter (13-0) in the first round on Friday at 2 p.m., with the other first-round matchup featuring Hartwick and Lebanon Valley at 10 a.m. The winner of the Drew/Hunter match will move on to the second round on Saturday to face 28th-ranked Skidmore at 2 p.m. while the Hartwick/Lebanon Valley winner will face fourth-ranked Middlebury at 10 a.m. The two second-round winners will meet in the third round and the final match of the regional on Sunday at noon.

Drew will be squaring off versus Hunter for the first time since 2013 and has won its last four matchups against the Hawks.

Drew received an automatic bid in the tournament by virtue of its 5-1 victory over Moravian in the Landmark Conference final this past Saturday. Hunter also earned an automatic bid after defeating Baruch 5-2 in the final of the City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) Championships back in October.

The Rangers are 1-2 all-time in the NCAA Championships. In 2010, they defeated Western Connecticut State 5-0 before dropping a 5-0 decision to Carnegie Mellon in the second round. Last year, Drew lost 5-2 to Stevens in the opening round.

Led by Head Coach Scott Veith, Drew carries a nine-match winning streak into the national tournament, has not lost since April 7, and was defeated by only one Division III team (No. 40 TCNJ) all season. The Rangers have set a school record for victories in a season, shattering the former mark of 14 set by the 2016-17 squad. They beat Scranton 5-0 in the semifinals before their championship-match win over Moravian. 
 
Hunter played all but one of its matches during the fall semester and finished 5-0 in CUNYAC play.

Hartwick (16-2) also captured its conference title in the fall, winning the Empire 8 title with a 5-1 victory over Nazareth in October while Lebanon Valley (16-3) defeated York (Pa.) 5-2 in the MAC Commonwealth Conference final this past Saturday. Skidmore (12-7) claimed the Liberty League's automatic bid on Sunday with a 5-2 win over No. 38 Vassar, while Middlebury (14-3) received an at-large berth in the tournament after finishing as the runner-up in the New England States Collegiate Athletic Conference (NESCAC). The Panthers lost 5-2 versus No. 5 Wesleyan in the NESCAC final on Sunday.

Forty-nine teams are competing in the NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championships. The teams will play a single-elimination tournament with the first, second- and third-rounds played at regional sites, Friday-Sunday, May 5-7, or Thursday-Saturday, May 4-6. The United States Tennis Association, Oglethorpe University, and the Greater Orlando Sports Commission will host the team championships finals, which will be held May 14-22 at USTA National Campus in Orlando. Student-athletes selected to the individual championships will be announced Wednesday, May 3. 

Automatic qualification (AQ) is granted to 40 conference champions, which form "Pool A."  One team was selected from true independents and schools from conferences that do not have an automatic bid for their champions (Pool B). The remaining eight teams are selected from those teams in conferences with automatic bids that did not win their conference's AQ and the remaining Pool B institutions (Pool C). The teams are geographically paired, whenever possible.