Clemson Starts Play in ACC Tournament Thursday

April 14, 2008

2008 ACC Men’s Championship Bracket in PDF Format

CLEMSON, SC–Clemson will play Virginia Tech Thursday at 12:00 pm in the first round of the 55th Annual Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Tennis Championship at Sanlando Park in Altamonte Springs, Fla.

Clemson is seeded 12th in this year’s tournament and has a 15-19 record overall. The Tigers finished 1-10 in the ACC this season. Ironically, Clemson’s only ACC win this year was against Virginia Tech on March 21. The Hokies are the number five seed.

The Tigers are led by Kevin Fleck as he has won 20 matches in singles play this season. Carlos Alvarez plays number one singles for Clemson and he has won 18 matches this season.

This will be the last ACC Tournament for Clemson Head Coach Chuck Kriese. Kriese will retire from Clemson at the conclusion of the 2008 season. He currently has a 685-418 career record as he is in his 33rd year as a head coach at Clemson. That career figure makes him the fifth winningest active Division I Coach in the United States. He is also the all-time winningest coach in the Atlantic Coast Conference for total wins (685) and league victories (166).

The 33 years is the longest tenure by a head tennis coach in the history of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Doyle Royal was at Maryland for 27 years during the 1954-80 era. It is also the second longest tenure in Clemson history regardless of sport. Former baseball coach Bill Wilhelm spent 36 years at Clemson (1958-93). Kriese passed former football coach Frank Howard. Howard coached for 30 years (1940-69).

Clemson is one of the top teams nationally as far as appearances in the NCAA team tournament. Under Kriese, 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 24 total appearances, Clemson has a 16-24 overall record. Clemson has reached the Final Sixteen 12 times, and the Final Eight seven times, including 2004. Clemson had seven straight top 10 finishes from 1980-86, third for the longest streak of top 10s in school history regardless of sport.

Under Head Coach Chuck Kriese, the Tigers have been to more NCAA team tournaments than any other ACC school.

Clemson won seven straight ACC men’s tennis titles during the 1983-1989 era. Clemson Head Coach Chuck Kriese has led the Tigers to 10 ACC championships and three runner-up finishes since his arrival at Clemson in 1976. Clemson won every ACC Title in the 1980s except 1982 or nine of the 10 contested in that decade. In the history of the ACC tournament, Clemson has won 11 ACC championships. The 1969 championship is the only Tiger title recorded without Chuck Kriese at the helm.

Clemson Head Men’s Tennis Coach Chuck Kriese has been National Coach-of-the-Year three times. In 1981 and 1986, he was named the USPTA’s National Coach-of-the-Year. In 1981, he was named Coach-of-the-Year by the ITA, the first time a Clemson head coach had won national coach-of-the-year honors in any sport. In February, 2008, he was named the National College Coach of the Year by the Professional Tennis Registry (PTR).

Kriese has been named Coach-of-the-Year in the South five times and in the ACC six times. (1980, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1997).

2008 ACC MEN’S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP April 17-20, 2008 Sanlando Park Altamonte Springs, Fla.

Thursday, April 17 No. 9 seed Georgia Tech vs. No. 8 seed NC State – 9:00 a.m. No. 12 seed Clemson vs. No. 5 seed Virginia Tech – 12:00 p.m. No. 10 seed Maryland vs. No. 7 seed Miami – 12:00 p.m. No. 11 seed Boston College vs. No. 6 seed Duke – 3:00 p.m.

Friday, April 18 No. 1 seed Virginia vs. Seed 8/9 – 9:00 a.m. No. 4 seed Wake Forest vs. Seed 5/12 – 9:00 a.m. No. 2 seed North Carolina vs. Seed 7/10 – 12:00 p.m. No. 3 seed Florida State vs. Seed 6/11 – 3:00 p.m.

Saturday, April 19 Semifinal 1 – 10:00 a.m. Semifinal 2 – 1:00 p.m.

Sunday, April 20 Championship Match – 11:00 a.m.