Purdue Men’s Tennis Reaches NCAA Tournament

For the fourth time this season a team sport at Purdue has reached the NCAA Tournament. First it was women’s volleyball in the fall. Over the winter both men’s and women’s basketball reached the NCAA Tournament and needed to be eliminated by No. 1 seeds. Now men’s tennis joins them.

The men’s team, which was 20-12 overall and 7-4 in Big Ten matches, was placed in the field of 64 and will face Columbia next Friday, May 12^th, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Should Purdue win they will face either Monmouth or No. 2 national seed Virginia, who was 28-1, 11-1 in the ACC. Their only loss was to the No. 1 overall seed Wake Forest, who was 12-0 in the ACC.

This marks the seventh time the men’s program has made the NCAA Tournament and first since 2014. Purdue is 2-6 all-time in the NCAAs and has never made it past the second round. It did reach the second round in 1998 and 2014.

Purdue has played some tough matches this season. They lost 4-1 to No. 5 Georgia, 4-0 to No. 13 Baylor, beat No. 23 Illinois 4-3, and lost to No. 13 Cal 4-3. Perhaps the most painful loss is to Indiana 4-3, which will likely cost Purdue the Governor’s Cup (Purdue trails 10-8 heading into the final two events).

Columbia is ranked 25h nationally and Purdue is 53^rd.