Women’s Tennis Earns At-Large Bid Into NCAAs

Columbia, S.C. – ­ The 34th-ranked South Carolina women’s tennis team earned a bid to its 28th consecutive NCAA Tournament, the NCAA announced during its Monday selection show. The Gamecocks will faceOle Dominion in the first round of the tournament at host site and top-seeded North Carolina.

First-round action will take place for the Gamecocks in Chapel Hill, N.C., and begins on Friday at the Chewning Tennis Center/Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center where South Carolina will take on Old Dominion on Friday at 2 p.m. No. 1 seed and top-ranked North Carolina will face Charleston Southern in the other first-round match with the winners meeting in the second round Saturday for a chance to advance to the super regionals.

Headed into NCAA competition, the Gamecocks are 13-10 in dual matches with an 8-5 mark in conference play. They notably upset then-No. 23 Vanderbilt 4-1 during the regular season.

Selections for the 64-person NCAA Singles Championship and 32-team NCAA Doubles Championship are set to be announced Tuesday. South Carolina has two ranked singles players in No. 12 Ayana Akli and No. 21 Sarah Hamner. Akli and Hamner are also ranked together in doubles, coming in at No. 32.

The singles championship will begin on Monday, May 23, and the doubles championship will start on Tuesday, May 24. Both will take place in Orlando, Fla.