Wake Forest Tennis teams find their destinations

Selection Monday was upon us yesterday, as the NCAA held their college tennis selection show and both tennis teams heard their names being called.

Wake Men

For the 6th consecutive year, Wake will be hosting a part of the opening rounds for the tournament. They’ll get to face off against South Carolina State, with the winner taking on either Ohio State or VCU.

It’s a bit of a raw draw as Ohio State, in my eyes, is at worst a top 20 team. People in the tennis industry were shocked they weren’t a top 10 team and even hosting after coming up a couple of points short in the Big 10 championship against Illinois, and finishing with a 20-4 record.

To make the run more “fun”, Wake’s quadrant also holds #7 TCU in the Round of 16 and #2 Baylor in the Elite 8. Hurts when you’re not your normal top 4 or 5 seed, but this is an absolute murderer’s row for Wake/TCU/Baylor/Ohio State.

We’ll get to find out what the real Wake Forest team is, soon enough. Scanning over the lineups submitted to the NCAA, you have to pre-submit and certain rules apply such as you aren’t allowed to move someone 2 spots from where they were registered(you can’t put your #1 at #3 during the finals or your #5 at #2), they are running out the same lineup from ACCs top to bottom. Not a particular surprise, given they were on their way to the ACC title game before a bizarro default changed the landscape of the match.

Wake Women

The women will be headed down to Georgia and spend time in lovely Athens, as they find themselves as the #2 seed in the UGA regional. This will be the THIRD time in a row they end up here, falling to UGA the last two. They’ll have a tough time again, but the key is going to be winning the doubles point and finding something at the middle of the lineup with Brooke Killingsworth and Eliza Omirou as Anna Brylan at #3 has amassed a 10-3 record this year, Casie Wooten has been fantastic at #6 going 7-3, and Carolyn Campana is one of the best players in the country.

If Wake can pull the upset in round 2, the road isn’t that much easier. They could find themselves against UVA in the round of 16, who Wake let come. from behind a few weeks ago when Wake was firmly in the driver’s seat, and then a matchup against NC State in the elite eight.

After an up-and-down year, it’s put up or shut up for this team.