Buikema, Thibaudeau draw top-seeded team

TUSCALOOSA | The 19th-ranked University of Alabama doubles team of Daniel Buikema and Mathieu Thibaudeau will face top-ranked Virginia’s Somdev Devvarman and Treat Huey in the first round of the NCAA Doubles Championships today.

The Tide team is 29-11 overall and has competed against 10 of the teams in the 32-team doubles bracket, with a 6-4 record.

“We’re excited about playing in the NCAAs again,” Buikema said. “We have a challenging first-round match but last time we played them we won so we’re confident we can do well.”

The only meeting between the two teams was in 2007 in Tuscaloosa when Alabama inched past the Virginia pair 9-8 (7-3). Devvarman and Huey are 37-4 on the season with their four losses coming from teams in the top 50.

“We’ve had a great week of preparation and the guys are very sharp,” Tide coach Billy Pate said. “It will be a challenging match, but we’ll be ready.”