Clemson to begin play in NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament Saturday

May 20, 2004

CLEMSON, SC-The Clemson men’s tennis team will play Texas Christian in the NCAA Men’s Tennis Round of 16 at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, OK on Saturday, May 22, at 7:00 p.m. eastern time.

Clemson has a 25-11 record overall and finished with a 4-4 mark in the ACC. This is the 17th time in school history that Clemson has won 20 or more matches in a single season in school history, all under Head Coach Chuck Kriese. The 25 wins is also the most wins for the Tigers since the 1989 season.

Clemson is ranked 33rd as a team. In singles, Nathan Thompson is ranked 96th. The doubles team of Nathan Thompson and Jarmaine Jenkins is ranked 37th. Both players were named All-ACC

Clemson has five players that have won 20 or more singles matches this season. Ryan Young has a 23-9 record in singles.

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 21 total appearances, Clemson has an 13-19 overall record. Clemson has reached the Final Sixteen 12 times, and the Final Eight six times, but has never advanced to the Final Four.

This will be the 20th meeting between Clemson and TCU on the tennis courts. TCU leads the overall series 10-9.

The Tigers’ Head Coach Chuck Kriese has a career record of 590-366 overall record as he is in his 29th season at Clemson. He is one of the top six active winningest coaches in the nation.

Clemson has a doubles team entered in the individual tournament. The doubles team of Nathan Thompson and Jarmaine Jenkins will be representing the Tigers. The pair also was in the 2003 NCAA Tournament and lost in the first round to the doubles team of Acuna and Hansen of Pepperdine 6-4, 6-4. They are the 34th doubles team to play in the NCAA Tournament for the Tigers.

Clemson Head Coach Chuck Kriese became the Atlantic Coast Conference’s all-time winningest coach during the 1995 season with a 7-0 victory over Virginia Tech on February 4. He currently has a 590-366 record at Clemson.

Chuck Kriese in his 29th season as head coach of the Clemson Tigers. This 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 one of the top three longest tenures in Clemson history regardless of sport. Only former baseball coach Bill Wilhelm (36 years), and former football coach Frank Howard (30 years) are longer.

Clemson defated fifth seeded Duke 4-3 last Sunday to advance to the NCAA Final 16.