With three Missouri teams in the Round of 16 in the NCAA Division II Women’s Tennis Championships, Northwest Missouri State’s Bearcats and coach Mark Rosewell will have a few familiar faces around in Houston.

Northwest, Drury and Southwest Baptist are all still alive and kicking at the NCAA’s Sports Festival.

But for any head-to-head matchups to occur, Rosewell’s team will have to advance farther than it has in school history.

The Bearcats (23-4) play Barry (Fla.) in today’s 10:30 a.m. match at Homer Ford Courts. Northwest hosted and won the North Central Regional last week, beating Winona State and Emporia State in the process.

But the Bearcats won’t get a chance to face Drury (23-3) and its coach, former Bearcat player and assistant coach Jared Smith, until Friday’s semifinal round. That’s virgin territory for the Bearcats, who twice have made it as far as the quarterfinals before bowing out. Southwest Baptist is on the other side of the bracket.

Northwest has made six straight appearances in the national tournament, last year being handed a first-round dismissal.

“We’re proud to be able to represent our school at this tournament for the sixth straight year,” Rosewell said. “We’ll do the best we can. Everybody’s good here.”

That includes Barry (18-5), which beat St. Leo 5-0 and Rollins 5-3 to reach the Round of 16.

Northwest’s No. 1 singles player, Kristina Vucenov, beat Barry’s eighth-ranked Ildiko Csordas in last fall’s ITA National Tournament. Other than that, the Bucs, like most teams here, are an unknown commodity.

Vucenov, an All-MIAA first-teamer who was ranked ninth nationally for much of the season, broke the Northwest single-season record for singles victories. Her record stands at 30-4, and with her doubles resume added she has posted more than 50 victories.

The Bearcats feature another All-MIAA first-teamer in sophomore Lisa Pendrak.

Former Central High School standout Jordan Lipira fashioned a come-from-behind victory in No. 3 singles on Friday to assure the Bearcats’ victory against Emporia State and the trip to Houston.

O’Brien moves up

Junior Anna O’Brien broke her own school record in the 1,500-meter run and lowered her provisional qualifying time at the Dr. Keeler Invitational on Friday at North Central College in Naperville, Ill.

O’Brien ran a 4:37.77, improving on her previous record of 4:40.94, set at the MIAA Championships the previous week.

Five Bearcats reached provisional qualifying marks at the Emporia State Twilight Qualifier held Saturday: include Ben McKim (shot put), and Kendall Wright, John Miles, Sheldon Cook and E.J. Falkner in the 4x100-meter relay.

Bound for nationals

That 4x100-meter relay team heads a list of five Bearcats whose provisional qualifying performances were deemed good enough on Tuesday to send them to the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships on May 22-24 in Walnut, Calif.

Miles additionally advanced as an individual in the 100-meter dash, based on his school-record 10.48 in the 100 at the Northwest Open on April 5.

Audrey Bailey advanced in the 400-meter hurdles on the women’s side, thanks to her 1:00.84 performance in the MIAA Championships on May 5. That is the ninth-fastest time in the nation, ranking her second in all-time Northwest performer lists.

This is the first trip to the national meet for everyone except Falkner, who advances for the first time since 2005.

The 4x100-meter relay team qualified with a school record 40.80 at the Emporia State Twilight Qualifier last weekend, and sits with the 10th-best time among accepted teams.

Strikeout queen

Northwest softball pitcher Kelly Morris broke the program’s single-season strikeout record during the Bearcats’ season-ending 8-1 loss to Nebraska-Omaha on Friday night.

Morris entered the North Central Regional Championships elimination bracket game in the second inning and struck out four to raise her season total to 147, three more than the total posted by Jennifer Spencer in 1995.

“She throws hard, but she has a great change-up and she mixes it in well,” coach Ryan Anderson said. “She’s a smart pitcher and obviously used that to her benefit.”

Morris finished her three-year career at Northwest with 320 strikeouts — the most by any pitcher in Bearcat history. She posted 41 career wins, which rank as third most on the Northwest record books.

All-MIAA quartet

Northwest had four baseball players earn second-team All-MIAA honors, as voted on by the league’s head coaches and released by the conference office on Monday.

Infielders Ryan Bledsoe and Nick Pfeiffer were honored, along with pitchers Evan Nickell and Bret Harvel.

Bledsoe, a senior, started all 51 games at shortstop and set the school’s single-season record for hits with 81. His .391 average led the team. He finished his career on a hot streak, posting a 22-game hitting streak, hitting .432 in that span with seven home runs and 23 doubles.

Pfeiffer, a sophomore, started all but four games at second base, hitting .337 with a home run, 23 RBIs and 30 runs scored.

Nickel, a senior from Smithville, Mo., is one of two relievers selected to the all-conference team. He recorded eight saves and an ERA of 3.29, striking out 19 in 38 1/3 innings.

Harvel, a junior, posted three shutouts in building a 5-2 record for the Bearcats, who went 29-22 and took fifth in the MIAA with an 18-16 conference mark.