Complete Bracket

CLAREMONT, Calif. -- The first Christopher Newport women's tennis player in over 25 years to compete at the NCAA Division III National Championships will begin play on Thursday, May 24, as sophomore Johanna Ranta-aho has been scheduled to face Claremont-Mudd-Scripps sophomore Nicole Tan. Match times will be announced later this evening and will be updated on this page as they are made available. 

The 32-player tournament will pit Ranta-aho against Tan in a first-round matchup with the winner advancing to face either #8-seed Bridget Harding (Emory) or Heather Boehm (Middlebury) in the Round of 16. The full draws were released on the NCAA.com website mid-day on Wednesday. The event will be played over the next three days at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center, with live stats and video available of all the matches. CNU's sophomore will not take the courts before 11:30 am locally (2:30 EST) on Thursday. 

Live scoring of the event will be available here: https://webapps.cmc.edu/livescore/  -- the tournament webpage with more information can be found here: http://cmsathletics.org/sports/18tennis/index

She is just the third CNU player to earn a berth in the championship event, joining Vicki Nebinger in 1982 and Amy Lawrence in 1992. Ranta-aho is 18-4 overall in singles play, including a 15-3 record at No. 1 in duals play. She has won 14 straight bouts dating back to a three-set loss to nationally-ranked Anna Maria Buraya (NYU) on February 24. In her impressive winning streak, Ranta-aho has won four matches against regionally-ranked opponents. 

Her first-round opponent, Nicole Tan, will be coming into the match one day following a national championship appearance with the team, as the CMS Athenas will take on Emory tonight for the team national championship. Tan is now 14-5 overall this season including eight wins on the top line in dual play. Tan is competing in her second straight NCAA Singles Championship after reaching the Round of 16 and earning All-American honors last season as a rookie.