NORFOLK, Va. — On the strength of their second straight Sun Belt Tournament title, the 51st ranked Old Dominion men's tennis team learned their NCAA Tournament location Monday night and that location is Raleigh, North Carolina.
ODU (20-7) will face 24th-ranked South Carolina (17-14) on Friday afternoon at 1 p.m. on the campus of N.C. State. The winner of that match will face the winner of the host Wolfpack and South Carolina State on Saturday at 5 p.m. in the regional final.
"It's exciting to be in the NCAA Tournament and to be as close to Norfolk as we are. South Carolina is a tough, battle tested team from the SEC for sure. Playing a name like that is a good start," said ODU Head Coach Dominik Mueller.
The Monarchs enter the tournament coming off a 4-1 win over 63rd-ranked Georgia Southern in the Sun Belt Championship on April 21. Freshman Connor van Schalkwyk leads the team in the spring with a 19-4 record, while sophomore Yanis Moundir sports a 16-2 mark at the No. 3 spot. Sophomore Cosme Rolland de Ravel is 15-6, while freshman Aryan Saleh is 12-8 and junior Codie van Schalkwyk is 11-9 in singles.
Doubles has the duo of Rolland de Ravel and Codie van Schalkwyk sporting a 14-0 mark at the two spot, Maxime Mareschal-Hay and Moundir are 12-4 at the three spot, while Jakob Cadonau and Connor van Schalkwyk are 8-1 at the top.
Connor van Schalkwyk was named Freshman of the Year and first team All-Conference singles, while he and Codie van Schalkwyk were first team All-Conference doubles selections. Rolland de Ravel was a first team pick in singles and in doubles with Cadonau, while Moundir was named to the second team All-Conference squad.
South Carolina lost the SEC title match to 4th-ranked Kentucky 4-2 on April 21. They defeated 19th-ranked Alabama, 15th-ranked Mississippi State and 6th-ranked Tennessee all by 4-2 counts to advance to the final.
Casey Hoole and Toby Samuel are ranked 18th nationally in doubles and sport a 9-5 record. Samuel is ranked eighth nationally in singles with a 19-5 mark this spring, while James Story is 89th with a 12-10 record and Hoole is 92nd sporting a 19-19 record.
These teams have met three times in history with South Carolina winning the prior meetings. They last met in the NCAA Tournament at South Carolina in 2018 with the hosts winning 4-1.