This weekend, Jack Hui's UCSB Gauchos and Martin Sayer's Radford Highlanders will be in action in the opening round of the NCAA Division I Men's Team Championship at Malibu and Georgia respectively, while Venise Chan's University of Washington will be competing in the post-season of the women's equivalent for the first time since 2005 beginning with the Regionals in Palo Alto, Northern California.

This edition of the post-season, the 104th NCAA Division I Men's Championship, will mark senior Jack Hui's final tournament as a collegian. After arriving at UCSB as a standout junior transfer from College of the Desert where he led COD to successive State Championships in addition to being California CC singles and doubles All-American, UC Santa Barbara has won the Big West Conference Championship in each of the following two seasons without fail.

The UCSB Gauchos (15-9) have been drawn to face 22nd-ranked Stanford (12-8) in the opening round scheduled for 2 pm on Saturday, May 10, to be played in Malibu. Host and No. 13 seed Pepperdine (18-6) will square off with Hawaii (8-10) earlier in the day in the other first round contest. The winners of these two face-offs will then battle for the right to advance to the last sixteen where the Michael D Case Tennis Centre at the University of Tulsa will play host to the business end of the D1 Team Championships, as well as the individual singles and doubles events.

UC Santa Barbara (Big West), Pepperdine (WCC), and Hawai'i (WAC) are all conference champions while Stanford is back in the postseason as an at-large selection. Stanford has never faced the Gauchos in the postseason.

The Cardinals finished third in the Pac-10 this year with a 5-2 conference record, but they have not won an NCAA Championship since 2000. Nevertheless, the Northern Cal outfit is currently on a four-match win streak and boasts three nationally ranked singles players in their line-up – No. 7 Alex Clayton, No. 80 Matt Bruch, and No. 124 Richard Wire.

The 70th-ranked Radford Highlanders (15-1) are to open against defending champions and 5th-ranked Georgia. Radford had sported a perfect 6-0 regular season record heading into the Big South Conference Championships and whitewashed all challengers until the final against archrivals Winthrop when they won 4-2 to secure back-to-back titles.

Junior Martin Sayer, who was ranked as high as No. 26 this season, will anchor the Radford line-up. The Hong Kong Davis Cupper is 4-3 against nationally ranked players since Fall, with those losses coming against 28th-ranked Treat Huey (Virginia), 22nd-ranked Erling Tveit (Mississippi), and No. 17 Dominic Inglot (Virginia). Since the setback against Inglot in the semifinals of the Wilson/ITA Mideast Regional Championships last October, Martin is still on a clean slate and takes a 14-match winning run heading into the NCAAs.

The Bulldogs, on the other hand, touts No. 4-ranked Travis Helgeson at the top of the line-up. He is a three-time singles All-American and the only player in collegiate tennis to have beaten top-ranked Somdev Dev Varman (36-1) thus far this season, when the southpaw triumphed, 6-4, 1-6, 6-2, in the semis of the Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Championships en route to claiming the title. At present, Helgeson is only one of three Americans to reside in the Top-10 of the ITA Collegiate Ranking in men's singles.

Dev Varman was riding on a 25-match winning streak when he went down against Helgeson on 7 October 2007. Since that loss, the man from Chennai, India, embarked on another unbeaten roll, which currently stands at 28. If not for Helgeson's win, Dev Varman would be strutting into this month's season finale sporting a 54-0 win-loss record. Prior to the loss at the Polo Ralph Lauren, the last man to inflict a loss on Dev Varman was Luigi D'Agord formerly of University of Miami, Florida.

The winner of the Radford-Georgia match will advance to the second round against either Wake Forest or Auburn. Interestingly, should the UCSB Gauchos and the Radford Highlanders both progress from their respective Regionals, they are drawn to face each other in the last sixteen in Tulsa.

Over in the Women's D1 Team Championship, the 38th-ranked University of Washington, as an at-large selection, will be making its first appearance in the post-season since 2005. UW had posted a two-year combined win-loss record of 7-40 prior to the start of this season. Their 8-match winning run earlier this year between the months of January and February already bettered their two-season win total.

From an initial ranking of No. 70 on 8 January 2008, UW has made incremental jumps in each of the next 7 rankings lists issued by the ITA before reaching a season-high No. 34 on March 4, a rank which they were to equal twice more in the month of April.

UW's turnaround this season is attributable in no uncertain terms to the arrival of freshman phenomenon, Venise Chan (20-9). In spite of handing the onus of being an exclusive starter at the one spot, and with it the prospect of having to face a slew of opposing number ones from various Pac-10 powerhouses week-in and week-out, the rookie from Hong Kong has registered wins against no less than eight nationally ranked players to date, including 23rd-ranked Nadia Abdala (Arizona State) in a match-clinching win, two-time NCAA singles finalist and 3-time All-American Lindsey Nelson (USC), and a 6-0, 6-1, demolition job on 20th-ranked Berkeley number one Susie Babos.

Earlier in the season, the Hong Kong Fed Cupper's 12-match win streak was snapped by 3rd-ranked Hilary Barte (Stanford) courtesy only of a third set super-tiebreak, 6-1, 6-7, [10-6].

Following two losing seasons, the 38th-ranked Huskies will be heading to Palo Alto where they will face 31st-ranked Texas A&M in the first round on Friday, May 9, at 10 am. The winner of that match will take on the winner of fourth-ranked Stanford and Boston University on Saturday, May 10, at 12 noon. The winner of the Regional will advance to the sweet sixteen, to be held at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center at the University of Tulsa.

Moreover, Martin Sayer has secured his third successive automatic selection to start in the NCAA Men's Singles Championship, while Venise Chan will also be making her presence felt in the NCAA Women's Singles Championship as an at-large selection by virtue of her Top-40 ranking.

Stick Around.

Notable past NCAA Men's Singles Champion include Dwight Davis (Harvard, 1899), Robert Leroy (Columbia, 1904 & 06), Francisco "Pancho" Segura (Miami, FL., 1943-45), Tony Trabert (Cicinnati, 1951), Rafael Osuna (USC, 1962), Arthur Ashe (UCLA, 1965), Bob Lutz (USC, 1967), Stan Smith (USC, 1968), Jimmy Connors (UCLA, 1971), John McEnroe (Stanford, 1978), Kevin Curren (Texas, 1979), Tim Mayotte (Stanford, 1981), and Cecil Mamiit (USC, 1996), to name a few.

Notable past NCAA Women's Singles Champion include Patty Fendick (Stanford, 1986-87), Lisa Raymond (Florida, 1992-93), Laura Granville (Stanford, 2000-01), Amber Liu (Stanford, 2003-04), and Suzie Babos (Berkeley, 2005), to name a few.

See NCAA Tennis Championships Honour Roll (Men's)

See NCAA Tennis Championships Honour Roll (Women's)