Wichita State women’s tennis team will face Arkansas in NCAA play

On Tuesday morning, Colin Foster talked to Oklahoma State’s Chris Young about dates for NCAA tennis in Stillwater later this month.

A few hours later, the NCAA confirmed Foster’s educated guess by sending Wichita State’s women team to Stillwater to play No. 19 Arkansas on May 13. The NCAA builds its field regionally to minimize travel, so Tuesday’s bracket reveal lacked drama for the Shockers.

“I spoke to the team a few weeks ago and basically laid it out that this is what I was expecting, to start getting mentally ready,” Foster said.

Times for the matches are to be determined. The WSU-Arkansas winner plays the UMKC-No. 9 Oklahoma State winner on May 14. The winner of the four-team bracket advances to the NCAA Championships on May 19-23 in Athens, Ga.

The Shockers (18-8) are in the NCAA for the ninth straight season.

Arkansas (17-9) defeated WSU 4-0 on Feb. 20. The circumstances were not ideal for WSU, which dropped a 4-3 match to Cornell earlier that day.

“We were certainly less than 100 percent for that,” Foster said. “But they’re a quality team. They had match points on Florida, which is the No. 1 overall seed. They win that match, they’re a host and we’re not playing them.”

Softball at home — WSU’s softball team wraps up its non-conference schedule with a 4 p.m. doubleheader against Missouri at Wilkins Stadium.

The Shockers (28-19) have won their last three non-conference games, defeating Nebraska, Tulsa and Kansas. Missouri (28-23) has lost five of its past six games.

Milton honored — WSU’s Jamesia Milton earned Missouri Valley Conference field athlete of the week.

Milton, a senior from Duncan, Okla., set the school record in the hammer throw with a distance of 202 feet, 4 inches on Friday in Lubbock, Texas.

This story was originally published May 2, 2017 at 5:56 PM with the headline "Wichita State women’s tennis team will face Arkansas in NCAA play."