Men's Tennis 5/7/2021 7:13:00 PM Greg Hartlage

Men's Tennis Opens NCAA Tournament on Saturday at North Carolina

CLINTON, S.C. – The Presbyterian College men's tennis team opens the 2021 NCAA Men's Tennis Championship on Saturday afternoon as they face No. 6 seed North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA Championship at Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center in Chapel Hill as first serve is set for 1 p.m.

MATCHDAY CENTRAL
MATCHUP: Presbyterian (11-6, 2-3 Big South) vs. No. 6 North Carolina (19-3, 9-2 ACC)
TIME: Saturday, May 8, 2021 (1 pm)
LOCATION: Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
LIVE STATS: Statbroadcast.com
VIDEO: GoHeels.com
NOTES: NCAA TOURNAMENT NOTES

SCOUTING THE TAR HEELS
- North Carolina enters the NCAA tournament as the No. 6 overall seed with a record of 19-3 including a 9-2 mark in ACC play as they fell in the ACC final on April 25th against Virginia.
- The Tar Heels are led by Rinky Hijikata who ranks 24th in the latest ITA singles poll and sits with an 11-2 singles record this spring.
- Hijikata is one of four players for UNC in the ITA top 60 singles rankings which includes William Blumberg (#35), Benjamin Sigouin (#56), and Brian Cernoch (#60).
- Cernoch leads the Tar Heels with 17 singles wins, Blumberg is 9-3 and Sigouin also checks in with nine victories.
- Blumberg and Cernoch are the No. 3 doubles pair in the latest ITA rankings. The pair is 12-3 as the Tar Heels No. 1 pair.

ABOUT THE BLUE HOSE
- Presbyterian heads to Chapel Hill with an 11-6 record after earning the Big South Championship in the Blue Hose most recent action.
- Under the direction of first-year head coach John Collins, the Blue Hose are led by the Big South Player of the Year in junior Max Benson who helped PC clinch the title earning the deciding point against Radford.
- Benson sits at 10-5 overall this season with a pair of ranked wins against N.C. State and Coastal Carolina.
Junior Nicholas McKinney joined Benson on the first team singles as he closed the regular season winning his final nine matches to finish with a 13-1 overall record to lead the Blue Hose.
- McKinney completed nine league matches (five singles and four doubles) and didn't record a loss in any of those matches which included four straight-set wins in singles play.

NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY
- Saturday's match is the second time in program history that the Blue Hose have played in an NCAA tournament and the first since 2017.
- In 2017, PC earned a trip to Austin, Texas to face the Longhorns in the opening round of the NCAA tournament after earning an automatic bid via the Big South Championship.

ALL-CONFERENCE HONORS
- Junior Max Benson has been named the Big South Player of the Year as announced by the league office on Wednesday as the conference presented its annual awards.
- Benson was also named to the first-team all-conference singles team as well as the doubles team paired with sophomore Georgije Babic. Junior Nicholas McKinney joined Benson on the first-team all-conference singles, while freshman Javier Matos was named to the second team singles. McKinney was also honored on the Big South All-Academic team.
- It's the second time in program history that Presbyterian has earned the Big South Player of the Year as Grayson Mills earned the award in 2014.

LAST TIME OUT
- Big South Player of the Year Max Benson earned a three-set victory to complete the comeback on Saturday afternoon to earn the Presbyterian College men's tennis team the Big South Championship winning 4-3 over Radford. The match was held at Marion Diehl Park in Charlotte, N.C.
- Saturday's title is the second that the Blue Hose men's tennis program has won and the first since 2017.
- McKinney with his singles win pushed his win streak to nine in a row and sits 13-1 overall this season.
- Matos got PC on the board in singles with his victory at No. 6 singles to improve to 7-2 on the year and has now won three straight singles matches.

UP NEXT
- The winner of Saturday's first-round match between the Blue Hose and Tar Heels will face the Oklahoma State/Navy winner on Sunday at 1 p.m. with a berth in the round of 16 on the line.

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Players Mentioned

Max Benson: 5' 11"; Junior

Nicholas McKinney: 6' 1"; Junior

Javier Matos: 5' 9"; Freshman

Georgije Babic: 6' 1"; Sophomore

Players Mentioned

Max Benson
: 5' 11"; Junior

Nicholas McKinney
: 6' 1"; Junior

Javier Matos
: 5' 9"; Freshman

Georgije Babic
: 6' 1"; Sophomore