VALDOSTA – The Gulf South Conference regular season and tournament champion Valdosta State men’s tennis team will open the 2023 NCAA South Regional with Spring Hill College Friday at 10 a.m. at the VSU Tennis Complex.
VSU earned hosting duties for this four-team portion of the regional as the Blazers are the No. 1-seed and Spring Hill is the No. 8-seed.
Due to the threat of inclement weather for much of the weekend, the schedule NCAA South Regional Men’s Tennis Championship was altered slightly. Both matches scheduled for Friday will now begin at 10 a.m. Friday morning at the VSU Tennis Complex.
With 12 courts at the VSU Tennis Complex, both matches can be played simultaneously as originally No. 4-seed West Florida was scheduled to battle No. 5-seed Rollins at 10 a.m., while top-seeded Valdosta State was to play No. 8-seed Spring Hill at 3 p.m.
The winners of Friday’s game meet on Saturday at 10 a.m.
No. 2-seed Saint Leo earned hosting honors for the other half of the regional and will face No. 7-seed Lynn, while No. 3-seed Barry battles No. 6-seed Auburn Montgomery with the winners meeting on Saturday also. The winners of Saturday’s matches at the two sites will advance to the NCAA National Championship Rounds in Orlando, Fla., May 11-16 at the UTA National Campus.
Fans can access links to live stats of the matches in Valdosta and streaming of the matches at vstateblazers.com on the men’s tennis schedule page or by clicking here for the NCAA South Region Championship Central webpage.
VSU is making its 28th appearance in the NCAA postseason and its ninth-straight trip. VSU is 52-25 all-time in the tournament with two national titles (2006, 2011), three runner-up finishes and two fourth-place finishes. The 52 victories are sixth-most all-time in NCAA Division II history and fifth-most among current Division II institutions.
The Blazers are 17-0 this season and won both the Gulf South Conference regular season title and tournament title. This year’s tournament title for the Blazers was the 15th in program history for the most all-time in GSC history. VSU went a perfect 9-0 in GSC play this season. Head coach John Hansen earned GSC Men’s Tennis Coach of the Year honors, while junior Luca Mack was named GSC Men’s Tennis Player of the Year. The Blazers had four players earn all-conference honors this season and three first team selections, including Mack, junior Rodrigo Carvalho, junior Christian Wedel and senior Christian Felline was a second team selection.
Spring Hill College is making its NCAA tournament debut as the Badgers won the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) Championship with a 4-0 victory over Tuskegee. SHC is 16-8 on the year and went 10-0 in league play.
West Florida (15-4) finished runner-up in the league regular season to the Blazers and went 1-1 in the GSC Championship last weekend, defeating Montevallo 4-0 and losing to Auburn Montgomery, 4-1. The Argos were ranked sixth nationally prior to the conference tournament. West Florida is making its 26th appearance in the NCAA postseason with a 74-21 record, along with four titles, two runner-up finishes and six third-place finishes.
Rollins is 17-6 this season and went 5-2 in the Sunshine State Conference. The Tars finished 2-1 in the SSC Championship and earned third-place via the 4-2 win over Embry-Riddle, after losing to eventual champion Barry in the semifinals. The Tars are ranked 13th nationally and are making their 35th appearance in the postseason with a 42-36 record overall. Rollins has won two national championships, one runner-up finish, along with four third place and four fourth place finishes.
The Badgers are coming off a 5-2 loss at Mobile on Apr. 18 after winning the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title with a 6-0 win over Morehouse and a 4-0 win over Tuskegee in the championship match for the program’s first league title. SHC went 10-0 in SIAC play this season and are led by Noe Hauschildt who is 16-6 in singles at the top spot in the in lineup and went 9-1 in league play. Tom Gutermann is 15-6 in singles and 9-1 in league play, while going 13-5 at the No. 2 spot. Will Huckell is 11-6 this spring and 5-0 in league play mainly at No. 5 singles, while Paul-Philipp Kern is 13-7 overall and 9-0 in league play mainly at No. 4 singles. In doubles, Sebastien Torres and Charles Wallace are 14-3 at the No. 2 position, while Gutermann and Kern are 18-3 at the top spot as the tandem went 10-0 in league play.
This marks the first meeting on the courts between VSU and Spring Hill. The Blazers played one SIAC team this season, downing Tuskegee on Mar. 9, 6-0, in Valdosta.
The Blazers remained second in the newest ITA Top 25, released Wednesday morning. Saint Leo, who lost to Barry in the SSC Championship, somehow remained at the top spot, followed by VSU, Barry, Columbus Stat and Indianapolis rounded out the top five. West Florida is sixth, followed by UT Tyler (Texas), Flagler, Rollins and Lee at tenth. Auburn Montgomery is 13th, while West Alabama is 16th and Lynn is 20th among teams from the region in the top 25. Embry-Riddle is 29th, Florida Southern is 31st and Mississippi College is 46th.
Mack remained at No. 2 in the rankings in singles as he is 23-1 on the year, while Carvalho is 48th with a 12-2 record and Wedel is 55th with a 17-2 record. In doubles, Mack/Carvalho are 15th at 15-1 this season.
For this portion of the regional in singles and doubles, UWF’s Facundo Bermejo is 21st in singles (14-4), while teammate Tomas Descarrega is 39th (8-7). Rollins’ Luke Quaynor is 49th (14-3) and teammate Efe Comu is 60th (11-5). In doubles, UWF’s tandem of Descarrega and Bermejo are fourth nationally (18-5).
For the Blazers, VSU is 78-9 this spring in singles (.897) and went 48-5 in singles in conference play. In doubles, VSU is 38-7 in dual matches (.844) and went 21-4 in league play. Along with Mack, Carvalho and Wedel, sophomore Lamar Bartley is 7-2 in singles this spring at the No. 3 spot and went 4-1 in league play, while Felline was 9-2 in singles this spring and 6-2 in conference play and junior Pedro Cordeiro went 12-2 this spring and 9-0 in conference play. Graduate student Swann Flohr is 4-0 in singles, while junior Edward Etty is 5-0 in singles. In doubles, Felline/Bartley are 8-2 at the No. 2 spot, while going 5-1 in conference play and Wedel/Cordeiro are 11-3 at the No. 3 spot and went 4-2 in league play.