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Men’s Tennis Starts Season at No. 1 Virginia
Men's Tennis  . 

Men’s Tennis Starts Season at No. 1 Virginia

Charlottesville, Va. – No. 5 South Carolina men’s tennis will begin its dual season in Charlottesville, Va., where they will face No. 1 Virginia. The match will be on Sun., Jan. 21 at 1:00 p.m. at the Boars Head Sports Club.

Gamecock Notables

  • South Carolina is ranked No. 5 in the latest ITA Coaches Top-25 poll. The team ended the 2023 season ranked No. 8 in the country, the highest final team ranking since 1989.
  • Junior Casey Hoole is the only Gamecock currently in the ITA singles rankings. Seniors Toby Samuel, Connor Thomson, and James Story each ended the 2023 season in the rankings but do not have any collegiate results yet this season after taking off the fall semester.
  • The Gamecocks began spring action at the Gamecock Kickoff in which the team put up five singles wins and three doubles wins.
  • Freshman Jelani Sarr led the team through tournament play with a 12-6 record that includes five ranked wins. The Baltimore native enters the start of dual play on a hot streak, having beaten No. 17 Kenta Kiyoshi of Illinois and No. 43 Miguel Perez Pena of Georgia in his two most recent matches.
  • Also with impressive tournament results this season are sophomore Lucas Andrade da Silva and freshman Sean Daryabeigi who both have singles records of 11-6.

Scouting the Cavaliers

  • Virginia is the reigning back-to-back national champions and currently have three players represented in the ITA singles rankings, all in the top-40 – No. 22 Chris Rodesch, No. 26 Jeffrey von der Schulenburg, and No. 38 Inaki Montes de la Torre.
  • The Cavaliers also have two ranked doubles pairs – No. 8 Montes de la Torre and James Hopper and No. 44 von der Schulenburg and Alexander Kiefer.
  • Virginia is off to a 3-0 start on the season with home wins over Liberty and James Madison, and a win on the road at No. 3 Texas.
  • The Cavaliers are on a 25-match win streak with their last loss coming at the hands of then-No. 1 Ohio State in the semifinals of the ITA Indoor National Championships in 2023.

Series History

  • The Gamecocks and Cavaliers have faced off 15 times in the history of both programs with South Carolina holding a narrow 8-7 lead in the all-time series.
  • The first matchup took place in April of 1957 with the most recent battle happening in the third round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
  • South Carolina holds the longest win streak of the series with seven wins between 1976 and 1998.
  • All of South Carolina’s wins in the series have come at home or on neutral territory. South Carolina has never won in Charlottesville.
  • Virginia has won each of the last two meetings – 4-1 in 2019 and 4-0 in 2022.

How to Watch

Live streaming will be available on VirginiaSports.com with live stats here.

For all the latest South Carolina men’s tennis information, continue to follow GamecocksOnline.com or the team on social media (@GamecockMTennis).

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