ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.– While the men’s tennis team saw its season end in the Mountain West Tournament, the dream of a national title carries on in the former of Bart Van Leijsen and Hayden Sabatka. The tandem was selected as one of the 32 teams in the doubles draw of the NCAA Tournament by the NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Subcommittee. That committee selected the 64 singles players and 32 doubles teams that will compete in the 2016 NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championships.
Sabatka and Van Leijsen posted a 24-11 overall record as a doubles team this season. Sabatka and Van Leijsen can certainly do damage in the tournament, as the duo made it to New York as semifinalists in the ITA Indoors in December of 2015.
Automatic qualification into the Division I doubles championships was awarded to any conference with one or more eligible doubles teams ranked in the ITA Top 60. According to the NCAA, for conferences with more than one doubles team within the ITA Top 60 eligible doubles teams, a subcommittee applied the NCAA selection criteria to determine which doubles team would be the automatic qualifier from those conferences, and the Lobos made the cut.
The singles and doubles competition will be conducted May 25-30 at the Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.