Moulton-Levy, Zoricic Garner Berth in NCAA Championships

Senior Megan Moulton-Levy and junior Katarina Zoricic will compete in the 2008 NCAA Individual Championships, Mary 21-26.

04/30/08 6:15PM

Indianapolis, Ind. - For the second straight year, senior Megan Moulton-Levy and junior Katarina Zoricic are headed to the NCAA Individual Championships, the Division I Women’s Tennis Subcommittee announced on Wednesday. Moulton-Levy becomes the first Tribe player to appear in the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships during all four years of her collegiate career, while Moulton-Levy and Zoricic became the first doubles team in school history to make three appearances as a team. Moulton-Levy garnered a national seed for the second year in a row and is a No. 9-16 seed in the singles bracket. The NCAA Championships will be hosted by Tulsa at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla., May 21-26.

Automatic qualification into the Division I singles championships was 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 will apply the NCAA selection criteria to determine which student-athlete was the automatic qualifier from those conferences. Automatic qualification into the Division I doubles championships will be awarded to any conference with one or more eligible doubles teams ranked in the ITA Top 60 for eligible/entered doubles teams. For conferences with more than one doubles team within the ITA Top 60 eligible/entered doubles teams, the subcommittee applied the NCAA selection criteria to deter-mine which doubles team was the automatic qualifier from those conferences.

It marks that seventh straight season in which the Tribe has sent both a singles player and a doubles team to the NCAA Individual Championships. Moulton-Levy becomes the second player in school history to appear in all four NCAA Singles Championships during her career, joining, Lauren Nikolaus. Moulton-Levy was a national semifinalist in 2006 and advanced to the second round last season. She is the school’s all-time leader in both singles (5) and doubles (6) wins at the NCAA Championships. Last season, Moulton-Levy and Zoricic advanced to the national championship match, before falling in three sets. The pair returns to the stage for the third time in their careers.

Moulton-Levy, who is currently ranked No. 12 nationally, is riding an eight-match winning streak and is 28-6 overall on the year. Of her six losses, five have come to players currently ranked No. 5 or higher in the national rankings. Moulton-Levy has defeated 13 nationally ranked foes this season and has faced 12 competitors in the 64-player singles draw. She owns seven wins against the NCAA field.

Moulton-Levy and Zoricic have been on a roll in doubles as of late winning 10 straight matches to up their season ledger to 27-7. The pair is currently ranked No. 10 nationally and owns a trio of wins of top-10 foes. Moulton-Levy and Zoricic have knocked off the No. 2-ranked team from Fresno State, the No. 3-ranked squad from Notre Dame and the No. 9-ranked tandem from Stanford. The Green and Gold pair is 6-3 against the NCAA field.

The brackets for both the singles and doubles championships will be released prior to the events in Tulsa, Okla., during the month of May.