Aug. 24, 2005

Columbia, S.C. – The South Carolina men’s tennis team released its 2005 fall schedule on Wednesday, a slate that includes the annual USC Fall Invitational in Columbia and two trips to Athens, Ga.

The Gamecocks, who finished last season 16th in the final Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings and tied for ninth in the final NCAA rankings, after the school’s sixth trip to the Sweet Sixteen, will open their fall schedule at the Southern Intercollegiate in Athens on September 23. The Southern, which is the South’s oldest fall tournament, will feature over 150 players from nearly 30 Division I schools, including some of the best collegiate players in the country.

The next tournament for the entire squad will be the USC Fall Invitational, October 14-16, in Columbia. The Gamecocks host this annual tournament, and this year expect to see nearly 150 players from schools such as Georgia Tech, North Carolina, N.C. State, Gardner-Webb, and Arizona State, among others.

USC will then head to its biggest fall event, the ITA Indoor Mideast Regional Championships. The event, which is held in Chapel Hill, N.C., serves not only as a tune-up for all the Mideast Region teams, but is also as a qualifier for the ITA National Indoor Championships, hosted by The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, November 3-6.

The Gamecocks will take part in their final event before winter break November 4-6 at the Bulldog Scramble at the University of Georgia in Athens. The Bulldog Scramble is an event reserved for Southeastern Conference teams, and will likely feature the host Bulldogs as well as USC, Ole Miss, and one or two teams to be named later.

USC Head Coach Kent DeMars had this to say about the importance of the fall schedule:

“The fall gives you a chance to figure out where your players are in the lineup. It’s difficult to do that during the spring season and it gives everyone the opportunity to strut their stuff. It also gives all the players a fair chance to find their place on the team and you’re trying to set the lineup in your mind. Fall goes a long way in trying to figure out your singles and doubles lineups.”

2005 Fall Schedule