May 17, 2005

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The University of Virginia women's rowing team is one of 12 teams selected to compete in the ninth NCAA Women's Rowing Championships. The championships are scheduled for May 27-29 on Lake Natoma in Rancho Cordova, Calif.

The other team selections include Brown, California, Harvard, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Princeton, Southern California, Washington, Wisconsin and Yale. Virginia joins Brown, Princeton and Washington as the only schools to receive team invitations to each of the nine NCAA Women's Rowing Championships.

"We are honored and excited about receiving an invitation to the NCAA Championships," said UVa head coach Kevin Sauer. `We look forward to competing against the best teams in the nation."

As a team selection, Virginia will send three crews to the NCAA Championships. The 12 schools competing for the team title will have one crew in each of the contested races - the first varsity eight, the second varsity eight and the varsity four.

Four additional schools received at-large invitations to participate in the first varsity eight competition. Those schools include Stanford, Syracuse, Tennessee and UCLA. The four schools receiving at-large invitations in the first varsity eight can win that competition, but without an entry in all three races are ineligible for the team title.

Virginia's varsity four crew won the NCAA Championship in that event and the Cavaliers finished tied for sixth as a team at last year's NCAA Championships. UVa crews finished seventh in the second varsity eight and ninth in the first varsity eight. Brown won the team championship last year with Yale finishing second and Michigan third.

Virginia has finished in the top seven in the team competition at each of the eight previous NCAA Women's Rowing Championships. The Cavaliers finished fourth in 1997, third in 1998, second in 1999, third in 2000, seventh in 2001, fourth in 2002, sixth in 2003 and tied for sixth in 2004.

The women's rowing team is in its 10th season as an intercollegiate sport at UVa.