INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (May 3, 2007) ? University of South Florida senior Shadisha Robinson received the BIG EAST's automatic bid to participate in the 2007 Women's Tennis Singles Championships, the NCAA announced Wednesday night.  Junior Courtney Vernon has been tabbed as an alternate.

The singles and doubles competition will be conducted May 23-28 at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga., following the conclusion of the team championship (May 18-22). The University of Georgia will serve as host.

The NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Subcommittee selected the 64 singles players and 32 doubles teams that will compete in the 2007 NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Championships by conferences having one or more eligible singles players ranked in the ITA Top 125.  For conferences with more than one singles player within the ITA Top 125 eligible/entered singles players, the subcommittee will apply the NCAA selection criteria to determine which student-athlete is the automatic qualifier from those conferences.

All matches are best of three sets. Regular scoring and a 12-point tiebreaker at six games all will be used for all matches.

This is the second consecutive year that the Bulls have been represented in at the singles championships.  Vernon competed in the round of 64 last year in Palo Alto, Calif., falling to Stanford's Alice Barnes 7-5, 6-2.

Senior Gabriela Duch and partner Neyssa Etienne reached the quarterfinals of the doubles championships a year ago, the first team to compete for USF in doubles action since 1985.  The two were also the first women's tennis athletes to garner All-America distinction since Laurie Macgill and Cristina “Kiki” Rozwadowski, also in 1985.

As a team, the No. 32 Bulls reached their second consecutive NCAA berth this year, and will face No. 27 Florida International in the opening round of the tournament in Gainesville on Sat., May 12.