The No. 38 BYU men’s tennis team will play the No. 32 Memphis Tigers Friday in the first round of the NCAA tournament at the University of Mississippi.
The Cougars received an at-large bid after a narrow loss to No. 8 Pepperdine in the conference tournament tennis match. It is BYU’s fourth appearance in the NCAA tournament under current head coach Brad Pearce, the last coming in 2011.
The Tigers won the Conference USA tournament, beating top seeded Tulsa and receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. This is their second straight appearance in the tournament.
BYU is led by first team all-WCC singles player Patrick Kawka. Ranked no. 35 nationally, Kawka led the Cougars with 21 victories. Kawka and sophomore Francis Sargeant team up as the No.1 doubles team for the Cougars and also received first team all-WCC honors.
The Tigers are led by Conference USA Player of the Year Connor Glennon. Memphis is riding a seven-match winning streak, including two wins over top 25 teams.
This will be the first meeting between BYU and Memphis. The winner will face the winner of Ole Miss and Lehigh on Saturday. Ole Miss is the overall 6th seed in the NCAA tournament and ranked 7th nationally.
The match will begin at noon ET and live scoring is available through Ole Miss’ website at olemisssports.com.
Patrick Kawka leads the Cougars into the first round of the NCAA Tournament this weekend against Memphis. (Photo by Chris Bunker)