Head coach Jay Udwadia (left-to-right), assistant Derek Schwandt and
junior Francis Alcantara react to Fresno State’s placement in the NCAA
Tournament. The Bulldogs will travel to Los Angeles to play San Diego
in the first round.
Esteban Cortez / The Collegian

In its third-straight trip to the NCAA Tournament, Fresno State will face San Diego in the first round

Fresno State will play No. 25 San Diego in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.

The Bulldogs (20-4) were placed in the Los Angeles Regional along with No. 4 seed UCLA and Eastern Kentucky who will be playing against each other in the other first-round match. The first and second rounds will take place May 11-13.

Ranked No. 33 in the nation, Fresno State has accomplished its season goals of winning the Western Athletic Conference regular season and tournament championships and for head coach Jay Udwadia, he has had zero complaints.

“So far I can’t complain. We’ve had a tremendous season winning the WAC, making the [NCAA] Tournament, you want to take care of those and then you want to try and maximize beyond that,” Udwadia said.

In the previous two years, the Bulldogs have won their first-round matches but have failed to get past the second round.

Udwadia believes that the do-or-die format of the NCAA Tournament will motivate the team to further success.

“If you lose you’re out, so I think that’s motivation to keep on winning. I think we’re going to crawl our way through and fight really hard,” he said.

Fresno State is coming off its second-straight WAC Tournament title and will face a San Diego team that lost to No. 7 Pepperdine in the finals of the West Coast Conference Championships.

The 2012 NCAA Tennis Championships will be held in Athens, Ga., May 18-28