Men’s Tennis Enters Spring Ranked No. 20
COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina men’s tennis earned the No. 20 spot in the Oracle ITA Division I Men’s Team Rankings, the organization announced today. It marks the third straight season the Gamecocks enter the spring campaign ranked in the top 25.
South Carolina head coach Josh Goffi returns seven letterwinners from last season when the Gamecocks finished the shortened spring campaign ranked 18th in the nation. Three of those returners learned their individual singles rankings yesterday – No. 32 Daniel Rodrigues, No. 81 Raphael Lambling and No. 118 Connor Thomson. Two Gamecock doubles teams also earned preseason rankings – No. 44 Rodrigues/Thomson and No. 69 Lambling/Jordan.
This fall, the Gamecocks played three round-robin tournaments almost exclusively against SEC opponents, a format that Goffi believes will set his team up well for spring success. Rodrigues rose to the top of the lineup in the fall with a 6-2 record that included wins over several opponents who finished 2019-20 ranked in the top 30. Thomson, a returning freshman, turned in a 5-4 slate playing higher in the lineup that last season. True freshman Toby Samuel made a smooth transition to college tennis, going 5-3 in the fall. A pair of veteran Gamecocks turned in five wins through the nine days of fall competition with Jake Beasley going 5-1 and Thomas Brown posting at 5-3 mark.
South Carolina is one of seven SEC programs ranked in the preseason top 25 – No. 9 Florida, No. 10 Georgia, No. 11 Texas A&M, No. 13 Tennessee, No. 17 Ole Miss, No. 25 Kentucky. The Gamecocks faced five of those teams in the fall, only missing out on playing Ole Miss.
In addition to the seven matches against those top-25 SEC foes, the Gamecocks’ spring schedule includes up to five matches against four other top-25 opponents, the first of which will happen at ITA Kickoff Weekend on Sun., Jan. 24, when they open against No. 23 Duke with an opportunity to play No. 2 North Carolina the following day. South Carolina will travel to No. 12 Wake Forest (Jan. 31) and is tentatively scheduled to host No. 8 NC State and No. 2 North Carolina at Carolina Tennis Center in late March, pending any required SEC makeup dates.
The Gamecocks open their spring season this weekend at Georgia Tech’s annual MLK Invitational Tournament with play running Saturday through Monday.
For men’s tennis updates, continue to check back with GamecocksOnline.com or follow the team on social media (@GamecockMTennis).
