INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - William and Mary men's tennis junior Jamie Whiteford
received an automatic bid to the NCAA Singles Championship,
the Division I Men's Tennis Subcommittee announced on Wednesday. As the
highest-ranking CAA player in the national singles standings at No. 66, he
garnered the league's automatic selection to the national singles event. The
University of Georgia will host the NCAA Championships at the Dan Magill Tennis
Complex in Athens, Ga., as the individual championships will be held May 23-28.
Whiteford is the third men's singles player on the fourth occasion under head coach Peter Daub to earn a spot in the NCAA Singles Championship and the first since Alex Cojanu in 2008. It will be Whiteford's second career appearance at the NCAA Individual Championships after he competed in the doubles tournament along with Sebastien Vidal in 2011. In seven of the last nine years, the Tribe has had at least one representative at the NCAA Individual Championships (singles or doubles).
Automatic qualification into the Division I singles championship is awarded to any conference with one or more eligible singles players ranked in the ITA Top 125 for eligible/entered singles players. For conferences with more than one singles player within the ITA Top 125 eligible/entered singles players, the subcommittee applies the NCAA selection criteria to determine which student-athlete is the automatic qualifier from those conferences. All singles players must have a minimum of 13 completed singles matches in order to be selected as an automatic qualifier or an at-large selection. All matches shall be the best of three sets. Regular scoring and a 12-point tiebreaker at six games all will be used for all matches. The official brackets for the doubles championships will be released closer to the start of the event.
Despite battling injury during the spring season, Whiteford earned First-Team All-CAA honors in singles for the second time in his career. During the fall, Whiteford became the first Tribe player to win the ITA Atlantic Region Singles Championship and as a result competed in the exclusive 32-player ITA National Indoor Championship in November. In the regional title match, Whiteford defeated the highest ranked opponent of his career, downing then-No. 18 and current No. 4 Jarmere Jenkins of Virginia in straight sets. Whiteford has been ranked as high as No. 34 nationally this season and is 12-7 on the year.
Whiteford is the third men's singles player on the fourth occasion under head coach Peter Daub to earn a spot in the NCAA Singles Championship and the first since Alex Cojanu in 2008. It will be Whiteford's second career appearance at the NCAA Individual Championships after he competed in the doubles tournament along with Sebastien Vidal in 2011. In seven of the last nine years, the Tribe has had at least one representative at the NCAA Individual Championships (singles or doubles).
Automatic qualification into the Division I singles championship is awarded to any conference with one or more eligible singles players ranked in the ITA Top 125 for eligible/entered singles players. For conferences with more than one singles player within the ITA Top 125 eligible/entered singles players, the subcommittee applies the NCAA selection criteria to determine which student-athlete is the automatic qualifier from those conferences. All singles players must have a minimum of 13 completed singles matches in order to be selected as an automatic qualifier or an at-large selection. All matches shall be the best of three sets. Regular scoring and a 12-point tiebreaker at six games all will be used for all matches. The official brackets for the doubles championships will be released closer to the start of the event.
Despite battling injury during the spring season, Whiteford earned First-Team All-CAA honors in singles for the second time in his career. During the fall, Whiteford became the first Tribe player to win the ITA Atlantic Region Singles Championship and as a result competed in the exclusive 32-player ITA National Indoor Championship in November. In the regional title match, Whiteford defeated the highest ranked opponent of his career, downing then-No. 18 and current No. 4 Jarmere Jenkins of Virginia in straight sets. Whiteford has been ranked as high as No. 34 nationally this season and is 12-7 on the year.
