Baylor Men's Tennis Opens NCAA Tournament against Florida State
COLUMBIA, S.C. – After getting its 25th-straight bid to the NCAA DI Men’s Tennis Team Championships, Baylor men’s tennis is set to open the big dance against the No. 18 Florida State Seminoles on Friday morning. First serve is scheduled for 10 a.m. CT at the Carolina Tennis Center.
The Bears (17-15) already have one win over Florida State (19-8) in a 4-2 victory during ITA Kickoff Weekend to advance the Bears to their 12th-straight ITA Team Indoor Championship tournament.
Friday’s match will be the first NCAA Championship match to be played by the Bears in Columbia as they enter with a 22-2 record in the first round.
Florida State ended its conference tournament in the semifinal round, falling to No. 8 Virginia, 4-1, and went 8-4 in ACC play. Oklahoma squeaked out a 4-3 win over BU in the Bears’ last match nearly two weeks ago.
The Bears are ranked 43 in Thursday morning’s rankings and have four entries in the individual lists. Tadeas Paroulek and Zsombor Velcz are at No. 15 in doubles, followed by Finn Bass and Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi at No. 40. In singles, Paroulek is 75th and Bass is 93rd.
FSU has one doubles ranked pair in Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc and Joshua Dous at No. 34. In singles, Cornut-Chauvinc leads at seven, while Youcef Rihane is No. 112.
With a win on Friday, the Bears would face the winner between South Carolina State (10-9) and ninth-seeded regional-host South Carolina (19-6) at 2 p.m. Saturday to advance to the super regional round at another campus site.
Live scoring and live court cameras will be available online for fans to follow along with the first two rounds.