The championship brackets for the C-USA tennis tournaments were released Tuesday, with both the SMU men’s and women’s teams in top spots.

The women claimed the No. 1 seed for the tournament that will be played at the Garland Tennis Center beginning Thursday afternoon. The Mustangs have a first round bye and will not play until Friday morning when they will take on the winner of the match-up between UCF and UTEP. The SMU women hope to make their third appearance in the NCAA national tournament.

The women also hope to better their 2004 performance in which they reached the second round. They concluded the regular season 17-5, ending with a ten-match winning streak.

The men were awarded the No. 2 seed into their tournament, falling behind the men from Rice University.

“The only reason we’re behind Rice is because they just beat Texas, who is No. 3 in the country right now,” said men’s head coach Carl Neufeld.

“But we’re excited about the tournament because of how well we’re playing. We just beat Rice and Tulsa-we’re playing really good tennis against really good teams,” he said.

The men are on track to play in the NCAA tournament for the tenth year in a row. The men’s C-USA tournament will be hosted by Tulsa at the Michael D. Case Center beginning on April 21. The SMU men’s team has not lost a first round game in its last nine league championships. They will face East Carolina University first on Friday. They also concluded regular season play this past week, ending the season with a 16-7 record.

The SMU men head into the C-USA tournament undefeated in conference play. Coach Neufeld and his players look forward to the challenge of upsetting Rice again.