Ferris State Men's Tennis Earns 18th NCAA Bid; To Face Rockhurst This Saturday

Big Rapids, Mich. - The Ferris State University men's tennis team, which reached the championship match of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Tournament for the second-straight year this past weekend, has officially received a berth into the 2013 NCAA Division II Tournament.

The 48 selected teams along with the preliminary-round sites were announced late Tuesday night by the NCAA-II Men's and Women's Tennis Committee during a live selection show special at www.ncaa.com.

Ferris State is seeded fourth in the Midwest Region and will square off against fifth-seeded Rockhurst (Mo.) on Saturday (April 27) at 2 p.m. (ET) in Evansville, Ind.  Top-seeded Southern Indiana will host one of two preliminary regional rounds in the Midwest.

The winner of Saturday's regional match between Ferris State and Rockhurst will then face Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Champion Southern Indiana on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. (CT).  Both regional matches will take place at the USI Tennis Courts.

If weather affects the matches, the contests will be moved to the Evansville Tennis Center. All matches are free admission.

Northwood is the number two seed in the region and will host the other three-team Midwest Regional (Midwest No. 2) which includes third-seeded Drury and number six seed Ohio Dominican meeting in the first round.

The winners of both the USI and Northwood regional events will advance to the NCAA-II Sweet Sixteen and the remainder of the tourney set for May 8-11 in Surprise, Ariz.

The Ferris State men's team, presently 15-5 overall, will be making its 18th overall NCAA-II Tournament appearance, includinga  second-straight showing.

A year ago, the Bulldogs returned to the field for the first time since 2010 after missing the event in 2011.  Prior to 2011, the Bulldogs had made 13 consecutive trips to the regional tournament.  Ferris has advanced to the NCAA-II "Sweet Sixteen" round nine times overall in its history.

Last year, the Bulldogs upset Lewis (Ill.) in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament by a 5-3 count before falling in the regional final against Drury in Springfield, Mo.

FSU was ranked 34th nationally in the most recent Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) poll while Rockhurst came in 45th nationally and owns a 13-7 overall mark to date this year. Host USI was 40th in the country, but won the GLVC Tournament this past weekend and holds a 16-4 overall mark to date this campaign.