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NC State’s Men’s Tennis Team is Heading to the NCAA Tournament for the 2nd Year in a Row
INDIANAPOLIS – The NC State men’s tennis team has earned a bid to compete in the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championships for the second season in a row. The Wolfpack (18-10) will head to the Knoxville Regional to take on Middle Tennessee (18-11) in the first round on Friday, May 3 at 11 a.m.
A win over the Blue Raiders in the first round would advance the Pack to the second round, where it would face the winner of the match between No. 14 seed Tennessee and Radford on Saturday, May 4 at 2 p.m. All matches in the Knoxville Regional are set to be played at the Goodfriend Tennis Center.
The selection marks NC State’s 10th overall berth to the NCAA Championships and its second selection in as many seasons under the leadership of head coach Kyle Spencer. In 2018, Spencer became the first head coach in NC State men’s tennis history to lead his team to an NCAA Championships berth in his first season.
The Pack saw continued success in 2019 as it put together a historic regular season in dual match play. NC State, which is currently ranked 20th in the Oracle/ITA team rankings, has been ranked in the top 25 for five weeks in a row and seven weeks in total on the year. The team has taken down seven nationally-ranked opponents leading up to this point in its 2019 campaign.
NC State’s 18 wins heading into the NCAA Championships are the most in a single season since 2016 when it also won 18 matches. The Pack finished the regular season with an 8-4 ACC record, marking the most league wins in a single season in program history. The team went on to kick off postseason competition by making history as the first squad in program history to advance to the ACC Championship semifinals.
Following this weekend’s first two rounds of regional action, 16 teams will advance to compete in the Super Regionals on campus sites on May 11. From there, eight squads will move on to the final NCAA Championships site as the last three rounds of action will be played May 16-19 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla.
The singles and doubles championships will also be played in Orlando from May 20-25 following the conclusion of team competition. The qualifiers for the NCAA Individual Championships are set to be released Tuesday evening.