Kentucky Men’s Tennis Earns NCAA Tournament Bid
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Kentucky men’s tennis team earned its 28th bid to the NCAA Tournament as it heads to Columbus, Ohio for the first and second round of the event. UK is the No. 2 seed in the pod and will face three-seed Virginia Tech on Friday, May 11 at 10 a.m.
Ohio State is the host of the regional and the No. 3 overall seed. OSU will take on East Tennessee State at 1 p.m. on May 11. The winners of both matches will face off on Saturday, May 12 at noon with the winner advancing to the round of 16 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where Wake Forest will play host to every remaining round.
Kentucky finished the season 14-11 overall and 7-5 in Southeastern Conference play. UK was eliminated in the second round of the SEC Tournament by Alabama, 4-1. UK has two ranked singles players, No. 8 Ryo Matsumura and No. 49 Will Bushmauka. Matsumura is 17-4 this season with nine wins over nationally ranked opponents while Bushamuka is 10-7 with four ranked wins. The duo of Cesar Bourgois and Gus Benson sits at No. 18 in the doubles rankings with a 9-6 record on the top court.
Virginia Tech earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament and is currently ranked No. 31 in the latest Oracle ITA Rankings. VT went 17-7 and 7-5 in Atlantic Coast Conference play this season, and fell in the first round of the ACC Tournament to Georgia Tech. Mitch Harper is the only ranked Hokie at No. 29 in the nation. Harper is 14-5 in dual play this season and he has played his entire season on the No. 1 court.
Host Ohio State is 29-2 this season and won the Big Ten regular season and tournament. OSU has eight top-15 wins and has five players ranked in the latest Oracle ITA rankings. No. 4 Mikael Torpegaared is the highest ranked Buckeye at No. 5 in the nation. Earlier this year, UK faced Ohio State in Lexington and fell 4-2. Ryo Matsumura took down then ranked No. 3 Torpegaard, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 6-4 in that match.
East Tennessee State made the tournament after taking down Furman, 4-2, in the Southern Conference Tournament. ETSU has won 12 straight conference regular season titles, including this season. The Bucs finished 16-7 and a perfect 7-0 in conference play. ETSU only gave up two points in the SoCon Tournament.
For more information on the Kentucky men’s tennis team, follow @UKMensTennis on Twitter or Kentucky Men’s Tennis Team on Facebook.
