Women's Tennis | 5/12/2016 11:28:00 AM

KANSAS City, Mo. - The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has officially released the bracket for the 2016 NAIA Women's Tennis National Championship, May 17 - 21 in Mobile, Ala. The 36th annual event is hosted at the Mobile Tennis Center. The field consists of 14 automatic berths, nine at-large selections and one host berth. Automatic qualification is given to conference and unaffiliated grouping tournament champions and runners-up, depending on the conference. At-large teams were determined using the final regular-season Coaches' Top 25 Poll released May 9. Mobile (Ala.) received the host berth.

The single elimination, tournament commences with eight first-round matchups on May 17 starting at 9:30 a.m. EDT. The top-eight seeds receive a first-round bye and begin action on May 18 at 10 a.m. The event concludes on May 21 with the championship match at 10 a.m. The Panthers ranked No. 12 (24-5) will face No. 21 Reinhardt (Ga.) in the first round. The Appalachian Athletic Conference champions are 12-4 overall this season.

"We feel good about where we are in the draw and there are certainly no easy matches," said head coach Patrick Grashorn. "If we can get past Reinhardt then I wouldn't be surprised if we made a run. I like what I've been seeing in practice this week. The girls are peaking at the right time. With so many new girls this year, it was a bit of a challenge to get everyone on the same page early this season. I really feel that everyone is clicking in practices, conditioning, and matches right now. We've been fortunate enough to have one great season after another and the best part every year isn't one specific moment but the entire journey. Regardless of how we finish up, I'll end this year knowing that the girls learned something on and off the court and had a good time doing it."

Official Bracket