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Pair of Aces: Men's and Women's Tennis Get NCAA Seeding

The women travel south to VA for No. 21 Fresno St.

The seeds are in.

And, well, it will be tough.

The Harvard women's tennis team's path through the NCAA regional looks like a rough road to travel, especially as it heads to William and Mary for its opening match of the tournament.

Drawing a seed in the 33-48 group, the No. 47 Crimson (11-11, 7-0 Ivy) will face No. 21 Fresno State (22-6), seeded in the 17-20 group.

And, should the Crimson defeat the Bulldogs, Harvard would likely face its nemesis--William and Mary (20-6).

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William and Mary, the 13th seed and the 13th-ranked team in the nation, will face Maryland-Baltimore County in its first-round match.

"William and Mary is our big rival," sophomore Sanaz Ghazal said. "It's nice to have another chance at them. Hopefully we have improved since then."

But first the Crimson has to get through Fresno State, the Western Athletic Conference champions.

The Bulldogs are especially solid at the No. 1 singles slot.

Senior Dora Djilianova is the No. 6 player in the country and also is the winningest player in Bulldog history.

Djilianova is riding a 17-game win streak, including a win over No. 3 Marissa Irvin of Stanford on April 20.

This could be bad news for Harvard.

The Crimson might face the Bulldogs without captain Ivy Wang, Harvard's top player.

Wang sat out most of the season with a shoulder injury, but played in a few recent Ivy League matches before aggravating it again.

"Ivy's resting," Ghazal said. "She'll try to play, but we're not sure. She makes a big difference because she will play No. 1 and it's reassuring to have her in the lineup, but we won with her and without her this year, so we are confident either way."

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