Clemson Men’s Tennis to Start Play Saturday in NCAA Tournament

May 11, 2006

CLEMSON, SC-The Clemson men’s tennis team will start play in the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, May 13, at Chapel Hill, NC. Clemson will play South Carolina in the first round at 12:00 p.m. at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center.

The winner of the Clemson-South Carolina match will play the winner of the North Carolina-S.C. State match on Sunday, May 14, at 1:00 p.m in Chapel Hill, NC. S.C. State and North Carolina will play on Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m.

Clemson has a 22-9 record this season and has been ranked as high as fifth this year. Currently the Tigers are ranked 24th by the ITA. Sourth Carolina is ranked 42nd.

Clemson will be making its 23rd appearance in the NCAA Tournament since the tournament went to a dual match format in 1977. Clemson is one of the top teams nationally as far as appearances in the NCAA team tournament. The Tigers went to 11 straight NCAA team tournaments between the years of 1979 and 1989, the second longest streak of NCAA Tournament appearances in Clemson team sports history. In the 23 total appearances, Clemson has a 15-21 overall record and has reached the Final Sixteen 12 times and the Final Eight seven times including 2004.

This is the first time Clemson and South Carolina have met in any NCAA Tournament since the 2004 women’s tennis tournament when Clemson defeated South Carolina in the second round, 4-1 in a match in Clemson.

In men’s tennis, Clemson and South Carolina have met one other time in NCAA play. In 1998, South Carolina defeated Clemson 4-0 in the first round at Richmond, VA on May 15.