HOME, SWEET HOME Members of the men's tennis team watch the NCAA selection show yesterday afternoon at the Murr Center. Harvard was named a regional host.

Never before have two NCAA tournaments been held concurrently at the same Harvard venue, but that is destined to change now that both the Harvard men’s and women’s Ivy champion tennis teams will be hosting NCAA first and second round matches next weekend.

The announcement was made official yesterday afternoon when the tournament pairings and sites were broadcast on ESPNEWS.

The action will begin on May 9 with two women’s first round games, including No. 17 Harvard against No. 23 Oklahoma State. Among the two men’s first round games on May 10 will be No. 40 Harvard against No. 17 Virginia Commonwealth. A women’s second round game will follow the men’s first round games. A men’s second round game will be played the following day. Times have yet to be announced.

Harvard has hosted the men’s tournament each of the past three years, but this is the first time the Harvard women have ever hosted. Both men’s coach David Fish ’72 and women’s coach Gordon Graham said they were excited by the announcement.

Graham said that given the fan support each team received during their Ivy title-clinching matches, he expects a great event. Fish said he hopes the men and women will get to play back-to-back matches on May 10, which will happen provided the men play the later first round match and the women advance to the second round.

“Particular the Saturday [May 10] match becomes a chance to have a festival atmosphere,” Fish said.

Fish likened the event to the U.S. Open’s “Super Saturday” when both the men’s singles semifinals and women’s singles final are contested.

Beren Tennis Center was one of 16 host sites selected for the first and second rounds of each of the NCAA tournaments. The winners of the 16, four-team brackets in each field will advance to an NCAA Championship site the following week. The men’s championship will be held in Athena, Ga. while the women’s championship will be held in Gainesville, Fla.

Harvard is one of eight schools hosting both the men’s and women’s tournament, along with Stanford, Florida, Kentucky, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, Duke and UCLA.

The arrangement gives the Harvard men’s and women’s teams the rare opportunity to see each other play on the same day. Also, both teams get to avoid the inconvenience of a road trip during reading period.

“We all definitely wanted to be at home with exams coming up, and the home crowd’s always nice,” said women’s captain Sanja Bajin. “It’s nice not to have to travel.”

Harvard Women

The Harvard women (17-3, 7-0 Ivy) were in the running to be one of the top 16 national seeds and the top seed at their site. But No. 16 seed Arizona (9-11), No. 22 in the ITA rankings, earned that distinction instead, despite being ranked behind the Crimson almost the entire season. Arizona will play Metro Atlantic champion Niagara (15-1), who has yet to face a nationally-ranked opposition this year.

Graham has consistently said that he prefers not to be the top seed at his team’s site. His reasoning is that Harvard will be better prepared for the second round by playing a tougher matchup in the first round. Rust is a greater concern for the Crimson, who will not have played in the three weeks prior to NCAAs, while most other teams played in conference tournaments this past weekend.

Harvard faces a familiar first round foe in Big 12 champion Oklahoma State (17-6). The Crimson swept the Cowgirls 7-0 at the Murr Center on March 19. Harvard won convincingly despite the absence of its No. 1 singles player, sophomore Courtney Bergman.