HAVERFORD, Pa. - The No. 28 Haverford College men's tennis team (12-5, 6-1 CC) is ranked third in the initial ranked-order release of the NCAA Region III rankings. Haverford is just below conference foes Johns Hopkins and Swarthmore in the first NCAA release. These NCAA regional rankings ultimately lead up to the selection of at-large bids for the NCAA Tournament as a key criteria on the table for the selection committee.
The championships provide for a 44-team tournament. Automatic qualification (AQ) is granted to 36 conference champions, which form "Pool A." One "Pool B" bid is awarded to teams in conferences that do not award an AQ or independent institutions. The remaining seven teams are selected from those teams in conferences with automatic bids that did not win their conference's AQ. The teams are geographically paired, whenever possible.
Haverford has posted eight of its 12 wins over regionally ranked opponents a list that includes Region III's top-ranked Johns Hopkins Blue Jays in addition to Stevens, Washington College, Franklin & Marshall, Ursinus, TCNJ, Christopher Newport, and Dickinson.
In addition to the team rankings, George Jiang is ranked fifth in singles while Andreas Wingert is ranked seventh. The doubles pairing of George Jiang and Stefan Johnson is ranked fifth in the newly minted NCAA Region III. The top two singles players and top doubles teams in each region will earn direct qualification to the NCAA tournament.
The Fords wrap up the CC regular season at Gettysburg on Saturday at noon. Haverford will have a chance to add another regionally ranked win to the docket and then await the pairings for the Centennial Conference tournament next week. More information will be finalized on Monday's conference calls.