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LOS ANGELES – The 32^nd-ranked Virginia Tech women’s tennis team is set to take on No. 38 Long Beach State in the first round of the 2015 NCAA Championship at noon ET on Saturday at Marks Stadium in Los Angeles. The match will mark Tech’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2000.

The Hokies (16-9, 7-7 ACC) ended the regular season ranked No. 32 in the ITA polls, their highest end of regular season ranking in program history. The 32 spot also matches the highest overall ranking that the team has ever had. Tech has reached No. 32 two other times; earlier this season after beating then-No. 16 Miami, and back during the 1998 season.

Tech proved its tournament worth all season by notching several wins in the extremely competitive ACC, including multiple victories over ranked opponents. Second Team All-ACC members No. 65 Ilinca Stoica and No. 51 Francesca Fusinato will lead the Hokies into the tournament out of the 1 and 2 spots. No. 100 Elena Cerezo-Codina will look to continue her strong freshman campaign this season, leading the Hokies in wins this season at 17-6. Both Fusinato and Katherine Butler are riding hot streaks, going 8-2 in their last ten matches.

The Hokies are 1-4 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, with the win coming over Harvard at home in 1999 to send Tech into the second round. In addition to this being the team’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2000, it’s also their first spring postseason appearance since joining the ACC in the 2004-2005 season.

Long Beach State (18-5, 8-0 Big West) comes into the tournament having won their last six matches, including a 3-0 sweep of the Big West Tournament to earn their automatic bid to NCAA’s. They find themselves in the NCAA Tournament for the fifth consecutive year. The 49ers, sometimes referred to as simply “The Beach”, are led by Maeva Razakasoa out of the 1 spot with a 29-10 record on the season. Every player on Long Beach State has a winning record in singles play on the year.

In addition to the team competition, Fusinato has been selected to compete in the NCAA singles tournament, taking place in Waco, Texas immediately following the completion of the team championship. She is the second player in program history to be selected to the singles tournament. Stoica, the first Tech player to ever earn a spot in the national indoor tournament, has been selected as an alternate for this year’s singles tournament.

If Tech wins, they’ll move on to face the winner of the match between Youngstown State and host school USC on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Live stats for this weekend will be available here.

For updates on Virginia Tech women's tennis, follow the Hokies on Twitter Follow @VT_WTennis