Pair of Gamecocks Earn NCAA Singles and Doubles Selections
May 2, 2018
COLUMBIA, S.C. — For the third-straight season, South Carolina senior Gabriel Friedrich will represent the Gamecocks in the 64-person NCAA Men’s Tennis Singles Championship, the organization announced on Wednesday. He and junior Yancy Dennis earned a spot in the 32-pair Doubles Championship, while sophomore Paul Jubb received the third alternate position for this year’s singles tournament.
Friedrich (23-13, 15-10 SEC), ranked No. 36 in the latest Oracle/ ITA singles rankings, has six wins over ranked opponents this season playing out of the No. 1 singles position for the majority of the dual-match campaign. Last month, he reached No. 24 in the rankings, the highest non-preseason singles ranking for a South Carolina men’s tennis player since 2001.
Dennis and Friedrich (7-3), the 28th-ranked doubles pair in the nation, recorded all seven of their wins as the Gamecocks’ No. 1 doubles pair. The combo has two top-25 wins on the season, including a 6-3 win over the 12th-ranked pair of Robert Loeb and Jan Zielinski of Georgia back on the opening weekend of SEC play.
Friedrich has qualified for the NCAA Singles Tournament three consecutive years notching his first career win in the tournament with a tightly contested 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4) decision over Florian Lakat of California in the 2016 round of 64.
Dennis appeared in last season’s NCAA Doubles Tournament alongside Harrison O’Keefe, but fell 7-6 (3), 6-1 in the round of 32.
Jubb (22-9, 9-2 SEC), currently the 58th-ranked singles player in the country, has also taken down six ranked opponents on the season and owns a 17-4 record in singles play since the start of the dual-match season.
The singles and doubles competition, hosted by Wake Forest University, will be held on May 23-28 at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex in Winston-Salem, N.C., after the conclusion of the men’s and women’s team championships.
More information on this year’s Men’s Tennis NCAA Tournament can be found at: http://www.wakeforestsports.com/ncaatennis/index.html
For updates, continue to check back with GamecocksOnline.com or follow the team on social media (@GamecockMTennis).
