Marshall University Athletics
Tennis Gets No. 2 Seed in C-USA
4/13/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- Marshall received the No. 2 seed Monday for the 2015 Conference USA Women's Tennis Championships. The 14-team bracket begins play Thursday with six matches at the George R. Brown Tennis Center in Houston.
Top-seeded Rice -- the tournament host -- and the Thundering Herd received first-round byes. Coach John Mercer's Herd will open play Friday at 11 a.m. (ET) in the quarterfinals against the winner of Thursday's opening-round match between No. 7 seed UTEP and No. 10 UTSA.
Each team match will include six singles matches, to be played after three doubles matches.
Marshall (14-9) has faced 11 teams ranked in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's top 75 poll this spring, going 4-7. The Herd was 1-3 against C-USA opponents in the regular season, winning at Florida Atlantic (No. 8 seed) and falling at Rice, No. 3 seed Old Dominion and No. 5 FIU.
The Herd was ranked No. 48 in the ITA rankings last week, with Rice at No. 30. This week's ITA poll will be revealed Tuesday.
The No. 2 seed is the highest for Mercer's program since getting a No. 2 in 2008. Marshall also had a second seed in 2006, its first season in C-USA.
The 2015 tournament semifinals are scheduled Saturday at 1 p.m. (ET), with the championship match Sunday at 11 a.m. Rice is the two-time defending champion. Marshall's best finishes in nine previous C-USA tournaments came as runner-up four consecutive times (2007-10) to former league member Tulsa.
