Duke Opens NCAA Team Championship Action Friday

DURHAM, N.C. – For the 24th consecutive season, the Duke men's tennis squad will compete for the NCAA Team Championship as the Blue Devils received the No. 10 overall seed to the event and will host a regional for the sixth straight year. Duke (22-6) opens the first round Friday against South Carolina State (14-4) at 1 p.m. ET inside Ambler Tennis Stadium.

The Blue Devils received an at-large bid to the NCAA Team Championship while South Carolina State earned the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference's automatic bid after going 5-0 in the MEAC during the regular season.

In addition to South Carolina State, Duke also welcomes Tennessee (14-12) and Stanford (17-6) to the Durham Regional. Both the Volunteers and Cardinal received at-large bids to the NCAA Team Championship. The two will play at 10 a.m. Friday. The winners of the two Friday matches will face each other Saturday at 1 p.m. Saturday's victor will advance to the NCAA round of 16 in Waco, Texas.

Versus South Carolina State ...
Duke's lone meeting with the Bulldogs was a 4-0 victory on May 13, 2005, in the NCAA Team Championship Durham Regional. In that match, the Blue Devils captured the doubles point and singles victories by Peter Rodrigues, Peter Shults and Ned Samuelson.

Current Duke assistant coach Jonathan Stokke played in that contest as a member of the Blue Devils at the No. 1 doubles and No. 2 singles positions, but did not finish either of his matches.

Against Tennessee ...
The Volunteers and Blue Devils could meet for the 23rd time should both teams win Friday. Tennessee owns a 13-9 advantage in the all-time series. The two squads have met annually since 2011. Tennessee owns a 5-6 all-time record in Durham.

After the Volunteers earned a pair of victories against Duke in 2014, the Blue Devils returned the favor earlier this season, defeating Tennessee 5-2 on Feb. 6. Duke dropped the doubles point but evened the match at 1-1 overall on court two when freshman Nicolas Alvarez topped Hunter Reese, 6-3, 6-2. Duke took a 2-1 lead when redshirt senior Chris Mengel downed Brandon Fickey, 6-3, 6-1, on court five. Tennessee evened the match at 2-2 with a Mikelis Libietis 6-4, 6-3, victory against senior Jason Tahir on court one. Duke then took the last three points with triumphs by senior Raphael Hemmeler, junior Bruno Semenzato and junior Josh Levine on courts three, four and six.

Taking On The Cardinal ...
Stanford owns a 7-1 advantage in the all-time series, but the foes have not met since Duke won 4-2 on Feb. 17, 2007. This will mark Stanford's first trip to Durham as seven of the eight meetings have been at neutral sites with the 2006 meeting in Palo Alto.

In the 2007 match, Stanford took the doubles point and the first singles decision, but Duke rallied with the last four singles victories to claim the match. Rodrigues, Kiril Dimitrov, David Goulet and Aaron Carpenter earned the four Blue Devil triumphs.

Duke Against the MEAC, SEC and Pac-12 ...
Entering this weekend's NCAA Team Championship action, the Blue Devils own a combined record of 21-2 against teams currently in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, 103-90 versus Southeastern Conference clubs and 17-36 versus Pac-12 programs.

There's No Place Like Home ...
Duke is 14-0 at home this season, good for the fifth most home wins in a year in program history. Two wins this weekend would make this club one of nine in program history to finish a year undefeated at home.

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Duke Opens NCAA Team Championship Action Friday

Players Mentioned

Nicolas Alvarez

Raphael Hemmeler

Josh Levine

Chris Mengel

Bruno Semenzato

Jason Tahir

Duke information

Duke Opens NCAA Team Championship Action Friday

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Players Mentioned

Nicolas Alvarez

Raphael Hemmeler

Josh Levine

Chris Mengel

Bruno Semenzato

Jason Tahir

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Duke information