Gamecocks No. 4 Seed for NCAA Championships
COLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina women’s tennis team heads to the NCAA Championships for the 25th-consecutive year and hosts the First and Second Rounds at the Carolina Tennis Center in Columbia, S.C., for the fourth year in-a-row.
The Gamecocks (20-3, 12-1 SEC), currently No. 3 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s (ITA) rankings, are the No. 4 seed in the tournament. They come behind No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 North Carolina and No. 3 Stanford.
“The pressure is ramped up a little bit in the fact that we won the SEC Tournament, but I also think we’ve gotten some confidence,” head coach Kevin Epley said. “This team has responded to pressure all year long. They keep stepping up; keep bringing the goods. (They’re) tough competitors. We went undefeated on the road in the last two seasons and those are some hostile conditions. This team has a knack for stepping up in those situations.”
South Carolina has advanced to the Round of 16 the past two years after taking both matches at home in the First and Second Rounds.
In this season’s first round, Carolina takes on North Florida (17-7, 6-1 ASUN) at 2 p.m. ET on Friday, May 3. The Ospreys won their fifth-straight Atlantic Sun Conference Championship after taking down Florida Gulf Coast, 4-3. Their victory earned the Ospreys an automatic berth into the NCAA Championships. North Florida and the Gamecocks met in the first round of the 2017 NCAA Championships with Carolina coming out on top, 4-0, in Columbia, S.C.
“North Florida is a very good team,” Epley said. “Old Dominion is a great and Virginia – that’s a good matchup. We’re happy to be at home because we have some good competition here that we need to get ready for.”
Also competing at the Carolina Tennis Center, No. 21-ranked Virginia (17-8, 8-6 ACC) and Old Dominion (19-4) face off in the first round on Friday, May 3 at 11 a.m. ET.
The winners of each matchup will play for the right to go to the Round of 16 at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday, May 4.
Dates and times are set to be released in the near future.
Continue to check back with gamecocksonline.com for more updates or follow the team on social media (@GamecockWTennis).
