April 14, 2008

Milwaukee - The Marquette University men's tennis team (15-6) has earned the No. 4 seed in the upcoming BIG EAST Championship and will open tourney play against No. 5 seed DePaul (13-9) on Friday afternoon in Tampa, Fla.

The Golden Eagles and Blue Demons will take to the court at 11 a.m. CT on the campus of the University of South Florida, which is hosting the four-day event. Villanova and Georgetown open tournament action on Thursday, with the winner advancing to play top seed Notre Dame. The MU/DU winner would face the Fighting Irish or the VU/GU winner at 11 a.m. on Saturday morning.

"I think the field is as strong as it has been since we joined the league," head coach Steve Rodecap said. "The depth and quality has improved and we are looking forward to the challenge."

MU, which posted a 4-1 record in matchups against league schools in 2007-08, defeated DePaul 4-3 at the Helfaer Tennis Stadium on April 5. The match came down to the No. 3 singles position, where Marquette junior Stephen Shao was able to pull out the win.

"DePaul is a good team and our guys are excited about the opportunity," Rodecap said. "I don't think either team played its best tennis in our matchup and we are looking forward to facing them again."

Marquette finished in fifth place at the 2007 championship, which marked the program's second year in the BIG EAST Conference. The Golden Eagles were seeded sixth a year ago.

The champion of the nine-team field earns the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships .