On how fresh the team is going into postseason play
“If you look at the history of this program, we get better in the second half of the SEC season and moving forward into postseason. These guys have a lot of grit and a lot of grind in them – that’s what we preach.”

On how close Harrison O’Keefe is to playing at full strength
“Best tennis I’ve seen from him. Last week was a big-time win for him… There’s a lot of pain you’ve got to go through [after an injury], a lot of suffering both mentally and physically to get where you need to be. He’s been fighting that up and down throughout the season, and he finally got there this last week and played some of the best tennis I’ve seen in his career this past week in practice.”

On his confidence in the team going into the weekend
“Good things are coming. I think if there’s a team that can make something special happen, it’s this team.”

– Head Coach Josh Goffi

NCAA TOURNAMENT NOTABLES

• South Carolina is making its 24th all-time appearance in the NCAA Tournament and fifth under Goffi.
• The winner of this weekend’s Winston-Salem Regional will advance to next week’s Round of 16, which is back at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex.
• South Carolina has won its last two NCAA opening-round matches, including a 5-0 win over East Tennessee State last year in Chapel Hill.
• The Gamecocks are 6-7 in first-round matches since the tournament expanded to its current 64-team format and own a 10-13 record all-time in first-round matches.
• South Carolina has seven Sweet 16 appearances in the NCAA Tournament and posted its best tournament run in 1989, advancing to the national semifinals where it fell to eventual national champion, Stanford.
• South Carolina’s best finish under the current 64-team format was a run to the Sweet 16 in 2005 that included 4-3 wins over Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in the first and second rounds, respectively.
• Carolina has never played any of this weekend’s Winston-Salem Regional participants (Wake Forest, Navy, Old Dominion) in the NCAA Tournament.

GAMECOCK NOTABLES

• No. 29 South Carolina (18-8) finished the regular season with five wins over ITA top-40 opponents and are two wins shy of the first back-to-back 20-win seasons since 1984-85.
• Gabriel Friedrich, No. 40 in the latest singles rankings, earned all-conference honors for the first time in his career last week after being named First-Team All-SEC.
• Paul Jubb, No. 59 in the latest ITA top 125, was named Second-Team All-SEC last week, earning his first career all-conference recognition after posting a 9-2 singles record during SEC play.
• Friedrich and Jubb’s all-conference honors are the 12th and 13th All-SEC selections under Head Coach Josh Goffi.
• Friedrich and Jubb are tied for the team lead with six wins apiece over ranked opponents having each spent time at both Nos. 1 and 2 singles. South Carolina is a combined 35-15 at the top two singles spots since the start of dual-match play.
• Yancy Dennis leads the Gamecocks with 25 singles victories on the year in addition to a team-leading 19 doubles wins.
• Dennis and teammate Harrison O’Keefe (7-5), the Gamecocks’ No. 1 doubles pair in the past six matches, were the 50th-ranked doubles pair in the latest Oracle/ ITA rankings release.
• Seniors Gabriel Friedrich and Thomas Mayronne (7-2), who have played out of the No. 2 doubles spot and are unbeaten during the same six-match stretch, came in at No. 58 in the latest doubles rankings.
• Wood Benton (21-15) has won back-to-back singles matches in straight sets, dropping just five total games during that stretch.
• The Gamecocks have won the doubles point in five of their last six matches and 17 matches overall on the season, racking up a combined 44-33 doubles record as a team.

QUICK HITS: OLD DOMINION

• Old Dominion (19-6) earned an automatic bid to this year’s NCAA Tournament after sweeping three straight opponents (UAB, Southern Miss, FAU) on the way to a Conference USA Tournament Championship.
• The Gamecocks topped Old Dominion 6-1 back on Feb. 11 at the Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center in Norfolk, Va.
• Friedrich and Dennis captured an ITA top-25 win by taking out No. 22 Aziz Kijametovic and Francois Musitelli to help the Gamecocks win the doubles point in the match back in February.
• Kijametovic, No. 117 in the latest singles rankings, has a 13-5 overall record this dual-match season, playing mostly out of the No. 2 spot for the Monarchs.
• Old Dominion enters the NCAA Tournament riding an 11-match win streak that includes three straight 4-0 victories en route to a Conference USA Tournament title.
• ODU has risen as high as No. 25 in this year’s rankings with wins over No. 14 Dartmouth and No. 24 Utah during non-conference play.
• The Monarchs went 6-0 against C-USA opponents on the way to their first conference title since 1994.
• ODU has won 13 of its last 14 matches, outscoring opponents 56-17 during that stretch.

UP NEXT FOR THE GAMECOCKS

The winner of Saturday’s round of 64 match will advance to face the winner of No. 1 Wake Forest versus Navy on Sunday at 2 p.m. in the round of 32.

For updates, continue to check back with GamecocksOnline.com or follow the team on social media (@GamecockMTennis).