University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC Men's Tennis Ends Season Ranked 21st
June 3, 2000 | Men's Tennis
June 3, 2000
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Final rankings for the 2000 college tennis season were released Saturday by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association and the University of North Carolina men's program fared well indeed.
Coach Sam Paul's squad started the season ranked 64th by the ITA but after an 18-6 season the Tar Heels wound up 21st in the final rating, moving up 43 spots during the course of the campaign. In 1999 the Tar Heels had finished 11-14, their first losing season since 1986, but the rebound season was amazing indeed. The Tar Heels finished as runners-up in both the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season race and in the ACC Tournament. The Heels earned an NCAA bid for the eighth time in nine years, beating Ball State in the first round before losing to Southeastern Conference champion and 2000 NCAA semifinalist Tennessee 4-2 in the second round.
Five of Carolina's six losses on the season were to teams, which finished in the Top 20. UNC lost once to #3 Tennessee, twice to #5 Duke, once to #8 Texas A&M and once to #16 Texas. Amongst Carolina's 18 wins was a 4-3 triumph over 2000 NCAA runner-up Virginia Commonwealth.
Individually, senior Tripp Phillips of Charlotte, N.C. finished 12th in the final WingspanBank.com Collegiate Tennis Rankings for singles. Unranked a the beginning of the spring season, Phillips went 25-6 and advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals in singles, the fourth time a UNC player has done that since 1992. The only ACC player to finish above Phillips in the rankings was Virginia's Brian Vahaly at #5. Phillips had singles wins during the season over #3 Daniel Andersson of Virginia Commonwealth, #4 Shuon Madden of Texas A&M and #6 Geoff Abrams of Stanford.
Phillips was also officially named Saturday to the 2000 Intercollegiate Tennis Association NCAA Division I All-America Team. He is the first Tar Heel to be named to the team since both David Caldwell and Brint Morrow were so honored in 1996.
Players Mentioned
