Rebels to Square Off Against VCU in the First Round
The No. 27 Ole Miss Men’s Tennis team has once again earned a bid for the NCAA Team Championships, with the Rebels receiving the No. 2 seed in the Charlottesville Regional, as announced during the NCAA Selection Show on Monday, May 1.
The Rebels will be set to square off against the region’s No. 3 seed and Atlantic 10 conference champions VCU (20-5, 2-0 A-10) on either May 5 or 6 in Charlottesville. With an opening round victory, Ole Miss would advance to play the winner of regional host Virginia (24-4, 12-0 ACC) and Navy (23-19, 6-0 Patriot) on either May 6 or 7 for a shot at advancing to Super Regionals.
With the tournament bid, Ole Miss men’s tennis extends the team’s streak to 29 consecutive seasons in which the Rebels have qualified for the NCAA Team Championships bracket. This stands as the 31st time in program history that the Rebels will be playing in the NCAA Tournament, as well as the eighth time under head coach Toby Hansson.
“This is always such an exciting time of the year,” Hansson said. “The guys have just done such a great job throughout the season and deserve to be there. We’re ready to play.”
Ole Miss (17-9, 6-6 SEC) put together a very impressive 2022-23 campaign to help punch the team’s ticket into this year’s bracket, including winning eight matches against teams ranked in the ITA’s Top 75 Team Rankings. The Rebels finished the year going 13-3 at home, with that number of wins standing as the most home victories for an Ole Miss men’s tennis team since the 2006-07 season.
At one point the Ole Miss side also strung together a total of nine straight dual match victories earlier this season, which stands as the longest streak for the Rebel squad since the 2008-09 season. That year, the Rebels strung together an unbelievable 20-match win streak enroute to finishing 10-0 in SEC play, claiming both the SEC regular season and SEC tournament titles.
The full 2023 NCAA Men’s Tennis Team Championships bracket can be found at the link provided above. The 2023 NCAA Men’s Tennis Singles and Doubles brackets will both be released tomorrow, May 2, via press release by the NCAA.
For more information on Ole Miss Men’s Tennis, follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissMTennis, on Facebook at OleMissMTennis and on Instagram at OleMissMTennis, follow Coach Hansson on Twitter at @TennisToby.
