The NCAA News - News and Features

April 20, 1998

A net change

Proposed modifications would continue evolution of Division I Women's Tennis Championships

BY VANESSA L. ABELL
STAFF WRITER

The Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet recently approved a Division I Men's and Women's Tennis Committee recommendation to revise the women's tennis championships' format, resulting in increases from 58 to 64 in the number of participating teams and from eight to 16 regional qualifying tournaments.

The changes -- the latest in a series for the long-evolving championships -- are contingent on the Division I women's subcommittee providing automatic qualification into the tournament for all 31 eligible conferences.

The subcommittee will be reviewing the new championship format and will finalize procedures for implementing automatic qualification at the 1999 championships during its July 6-9 meeting.

Subcommittee chair Barbara Camp, associate athletics director at Auburn University, appreciates the work in store for the subcommittee this summer.

"All of the final details will be worked out this summer," she said. "All of the details concerning the locations, the seeds and where everybody is going to go will be distributed to the membership and will be included in the championships handbook next year."

Andy Brandi, head coach at the University of Florida, sees expansion of the regionals as the latest in a series of steps toward creating more championship opportunities.

"There were only 16 teams (in the first championships that Brandi attended)," he said. "As the years have gone by with the regionals, it has given the schools a lot of opportunities to get themselves to the NCAA championships."

But Brandi also sees challenges ahead. "It is going to be a very tough task to even out those 16 regionals," he said.

"If you look at the top-10 ranking, the Southeast and California have a pretty strong hold on the top 10 teams in the country, and then you throw Texas into that strong mix. Those areas can pretty much count for all the teams in the top 10.

"I would hope that they would move the teams in the same region to different regionals. How do you make it fair, and how do you spread out the opportunities?"

Jeff Wallace, head coach at the University of Georgia and assistant chair of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's women's operating committee, is eager to hear how the teams will be assigned in the 1999 regionals.

"The most important part (of the new championship format) is how they are going to spread out the teams," he said.

Wallace recognizes the strong impact that automatic qualifications will have on the field. "Out of 31 automatic qualifications, how many will be ranked in the top 64 in the country? Quite possibly, 20 of them," he said. "It hurts the strong conferences like the SEC and the Pac-10."

Changes in Women's Tennis

The NCAA sponsored the first Division I Women's Tennis Championships in 1982. Since then, the championships have experienced a number of changes.

1982

In 1982, the Division I women's subcommittee of the Men's and Women's Tennis Committee agreed to select the top 16 teams in the nation for the first team championship.

Five of the six regions -- all except the East region -- each received a single automatic berth. The other teams competing for the championship were selected by the subcommittee on an at-large basis.

Only one conference -- the Western Collegiate Athletic Conference -- was granted automatic qualification. It was the only time in the history of the Division I Women's Tennis Championships that any conference received automatic qualification.

The selected teams played a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion. The matches were regulation dual matches (six singles and three doubles matches), and each match was decided by best-of-three sets. The subcommittee required that all nine matches be played.

Those first championships matches also featured no-ad scoring (in which the individual receiving a serve in a match tied 3-3 picks the side she wants to play, and then that point decides the game) and a 12-point tiebreaker in games tied at 6-6.

The tournament also featured a third-place match.

The subcommittee also selected 64 singles players and 32 doubles teams for individual competition, relying on recommendations of regional advisory committees. All selections were based on established selection criteria. Even though all participants were selected on an at-large basis, the subcommittee attempted to obtain an equal regional representation.

The individual championship matches were decided by best of three sets, and these matches also used no-ad scoring system and the 12-point tiebreaker.

1983-1984

In 1983 and 1984, the women's tennis subcommittee gave participants some freedom in competition.

If a team had two matches in one day, a coach was permitted to decide to stop play after all singles matches had been completed and the fifth team point had been won. If a match was still in progress when a coach stopped play, the match counted as a loss for the team defaulting. Matches that had not yet begun were not counted.

Also in 1983, the subcommittee attempted to ensure regional representation in the individual championships, although at-large selection remained effective. The subcommittee selected a minimum of four singles players and two doubles teams from each region. No more than six singles players and three doubles teams were selected from one institution.

1985-1986

In 1985 and 1986, all first-round matches in the team championship had to be played to completion, but subsequent matches did not have to be played to completion if a winner had been decided after the singles competition. If the two competing teams did not agree to terminate play, the winning team was permitted to default the remaining matches.

1987

In 1987, the subcommittee eliminated the play-off for third and fourth place in the team championship.

1988

In 1988, the team championship field size increased from 16 to 20 teams. The 20 teams continued to play a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion. Team competition expanded from four to five days to permit teams seeded No. 13 through 20 to play four first-round matches to advance into the second round of the tournament.

1989

In 1989, scoring at the women's tennis championships changed. In previous tournaments, the team and individual championships used no-ad scoring, but the tournament switched to the regular scoring system in use worldwide in 1989.

1990

In 1990, the subcommittee agreed that matches may continue after a team winner had been determined if both head coaches were in agreement and the games committee approved. The games committee reserved the right to stop a match in the best interest of the administration of the tournament. The final team scores reflected only those matches that were played to completion.

1993

In 1993, the first- and second-round matches were changed from four to six and eight to six matches, respectively. The four top-seeded teams received byes from the first round of competition.

1996

In 1996, the team championship's field expanded to a minimum of 58 teams. The teams selected played a single-elimination tournament at six regional sites (eight teams at each site) and then advanced to the 16-team finals to national champion. Regionals were scheduled as three-day events, featuring four matches on day one, two matches on day two and the regional-championship match on day three. The six regional champions advanced to the finals to challenge 10 top-ranked teams that received byes from the regionals. The finals lasted for four days; eight matches were played on day one, and the winning teams advanced to quarterfinals on day two. The semifinals were on day three and the final on day four.

The subcommittee also selected a maximum of 68 players for the individual championships from institutions other than those competing in the team championship.

1997

In 1997, the team championship format provided for six singles matches (best-of-three sets), followed by three eight-game, pro set doubles matches. To create parity in the field, only one team seeded Nos. 11 through 16 and one seeded Nos. 17 through 22 was assigned to each regional. When a region had more than one team seeded Nos. 11 through 16 or Nos. 17 through 22, the subcommittee assigned the higher-seeded of those teams to the closest, weakest region.