Pac-12 Brackets Set at The Ojai
SAN FRANCISCO – The Pac-12 Conference announced the brackets for the 2019 Pac-12 Men’s and Women’s Tennis Championships. The chase for the conference crown starts this Wednesday, April 24 in Ojai, Calif., with a men’s play-in match and three women’s first-round matches. For the second-straight season, regular-season champions and league-unbeatens UCLA men and Stanford women will be the top seeds.
No. 14 nationally ranked UCLA men’s tennis (16-4, 8-0) clinched the No. 1 seed and posted an undefeated Conference record for the fourth-consecutive season. This is the Bruins’ sixth time earning the No. 1 seed in the tournament’s eight-year history. The reigning Pac-12 Champions have won the Pac-12 team tournament four times. No. 10 nationally ranked USC (17-7, 7-1) claims the second seed for the second-straight year. The Trojans have reached the championship match in all but one year (2016) in the history of the men’s team tournament. Stanford (16-5, 5-3) takes the third seed while being nationally ranked No. 12, while No. 35 ranked California (12-11, 4-4) rounds out the top four of the men’s bracket.
The women’s tennis bracket is led by defending NCAA Champions and No. 4 nationally ranked Stanford (19-1, 10-0). Since the women started a team bracket at the Pac-12 Championships in 2016, the Cardinal have been named the No. 1 seed all three years and have been crowned the Pac-12 Women’s Tennis Champions the last two years. This also marks the third-straight year Stanford has gone undefeated in Conference play. UCLA (16-6, 8-2) earns the No. 2 seed and are ranked No. 10 in the ITA rankings. The Bruins were also the No. 2 seed last year and reached the championship match. Washington (18-3, 8-2), ranked No. 13 nationally, takes the No. 3 seed after setting a program record for most conference wins. USC (17-6, 7-3), No. 15 nationally, and California (12-7, 6-4), ranked No. 14 nationally, take the No. 3 and 4 seeds, respectively. The top four seeds receive a first-round bye.
Team seeding is based on won-lost percentages during regular-season Conference play with the tiebreaker being the head-to-head matchup winner. Both the women and men will compete in a tournament team format to determine the Pac-12 Champion and the automatic qualifier for the NCAA Championships.
Live TV coverage of the event begins Thursday, April 24 with the men’s quarterfinals starting at 9 a.m. PT on Pac-12 Bay Area. Pac-12 Network and Pac-12 Bay Area will televise the men’s semifinals on Friday, April 26 beginning at 1 p.m. PT. The men’s finals will air live on Pac-12 Network and Pac-12 Bay Area beginning at 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 27, and the women’s finals will be broadcast live on Saturday as well on Pac-12 Bay Area beginning at 12 p.m. PT. All televised matches will also be available to stream on the Pac-12 Now app. Scores and updates can be found at pac-12.com/tennis/championships.