NEWPORT, R.I. - The Salve Regina University men's tennis team will travel to Amherst, Mass., this Friday to face St. Joseph's (Long Island) in the first round of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Tournament.

Making their third NCAA appearance in program history, the Seahawks (13-10) captured their 15th The Commonwealth Coast Conference (TCCC) championship by defeating defending conference champion Roger Williams 5-4 on Saturday, May 1. The third-seeded Seahawks advanced to the finals by first knocking off sixth-seed Endicott 5-2 before scoring a 5-4 win over second-seed Nichols two days later.

"We're extremely excited to be in the tournament," said Salve Regina first-year head coach Joe Heckley. "It's been a long week of waiting to find out who our opponent would be and where we'd be playing, but we're going to have a solid week of practice and bring our 'A' game with us to Amherst."

Freshman Chad Strong (San Diego, Calif.) led the Seahawks with 18 singles wins, followed by classmate Aaron Isch (Tolland, Conn.) with 17 and senior co-captain Steve Masso (North Scituate, R.I.) with 14. The doubles team of Strong and sophomore Zach Rosenfeld (Easton, Conn.) boasts a team-high 14 doubles wins, followed by Masso and senior co-captain Andrew Martin (Glastonbury, Conn.) with 13. Both Martin and Masso are making their third trip to the NCAAs.

The Golden Eagles, meanwhile, bring a 14-4 mark into the tournament and are fresh off their third-straight Skyline Conference Championship. They posted a perfect 7-0 mark in conference play and have won their last five matches. They are led by junior Erik Forsythe and his 16 singles wins, while the doubles team of Forsythe and senior Kyle Barnett is tied with the team of junior Nick Donadio and senior Dan Celentano with eight doubles wins each.

"Being honest, I don't know that much about St. Joseph's, but I'm going to do my homework tonight," said Heckley. "This is my first NCAA tournament – I never went as a player, so I want to make sure I'm as prepared as I can possibly be, and I want our team to as well. We entered the conference playoffs on a win streak and were able to carry it through the tournament. I hope we can keep it going Friday."

The 42 selected teams will play a single-elimination tournament with the first, second and third rounds played at regional sites, May 14-16 or May 13-14. Oberlin College and the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission will host the team championships finals, which will be held May 25-27 at the Don Hunsinger Courts in Oberlin, Ohio. Student-athletes selected to the individual championships will be announced Wednesday, May 12.

Automatic qualification (AQ) is granted to 28 conference champions, which form "Pool A." Nine teams are selected from true independents and schools from conferences that do not have an automatic bid for their champions (Pool B). The remaining five teams are selected from those teams in conferences with automatic bids that did not win their conference's AQ and the remaining Pool B institutions (Pool C). The teams are geographically paired, whenever possible.

Amherst College received an at-large bid to the tournament and awaits the winner of the SRU/St. Joseph's (Long Island) contest, while the other side of the bracket features Williams (11-6) against St. Lawrence (12-5). Both of those contests will be played in Amherst on Saturday, May 15.

NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Bracket

-Courtesy of Salve Regina Sports Information