FMU tennis readies for NCAA Sweet 16

FLORENCE — Seventh-ranked Francis Marion will face top-ranked and unbeaten BYU-Hawaii in the round of Sweet Sixteen at the NCAA Division II Women’s Tennis National Championships today in Altamonte Springs, Fla.

The match will begin at 1:30 p.m. Live stats will be available on https://admin.xosn.com/fls/19500/2009NCAATennis/Wlive02.htm.

FMU is 20-4 after winning the Southeast Regional last weekend and is making its second straight trip to the national finals.

Last year, the Patriots defeated Abilene Christian University 5-4 in the Sweet Sixteen round before falling to Lynn University, the eventual national runner-up, in the quarterfinal round.

BYU-Hawaii, winner of the West Regional, is 26-0 and have won seven of the past 10 Division II national titles.

Their line-up includes the third (Elwen Li) and fourth (Yuan Jia) ranked singles players in Division II, and the top-ranked doubles team (Li and Jia).

Junior Tereza Sykorova plays the No. 1 singles spot for FMU. She is ranked 18th nationally with a 17-6 season record. Sophomore Jitka Gavdunova is 21-1, has won nine straight decisions, and is ranked 29th nationally.

Over the past two seasons, FMU is a combined 43-7, with six losses to opponents ranked in the Top 5 and the other loss was to an NCAA Division I opponent.