University of North Carolina Athletics
Graduate student Ryan Seggerman
Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati
Tar Heels Grab NCAA MTEN Singles & Doubles Invitations
May 2, 2023 | Men's Tennis
It's becoming an annual tradition. Over and over in recent years, Tar Heel men's tennis players have excelled at the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships.
In recent years, UNC All-Americas and future professional talents like William Blumberg, Rinky Hijikata, Brian Cernoch and others have made big splashes on the national stage.
The Tar Heels will hope for more of the same success after the NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Subcommittee on Tuesday night selected the 64 singles players and 32 doubles teams that will compete in the 2023 NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championships.
UNC graduate students Cernoch and Ryan Seggerman both grabbed at-large invitations to the singles field. Seggerman was a second-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference choice in singles in 2023, while Cernoch was a third-team singles pick.
It's Cernoch's second consecutive NCAA singles berth. He earned All-America honors in 2022 in his first year in the singles field, reaching the NCAA Round of 16. He's a three-time All-America who also owns a pair of doubles All-America performances as a Tar Heel.
Meanwhile, Seggerman and sophomore Casey Kania, Carolina's top doubles team all season and a first-team All-ACC doubles pick, were an at-large selection to the 32-team doubles field.
Seggerman, a graduate transfer from Princeton in his first season as a Tar Heel, qualified for the NCAA doubles field twice for Princeton in 2019 and 2022. It's Kania's first NCAA doubles appearance.
UNC's No. 2 doubles team of Cernoch and Benjamin Kittay are the first alternate in the doubles field.
The singles and doubles competition will be conducted May 22-27 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla., after the conclusion of the team championship, which runs from May 18-20. This year's event will be conducted jointly with the NCAA Divisions II and III Men's and Women's Tennis Championships and hosted by the University of Central Florida and the Greater Orlando Sports Commission.
All matches will be the best-of-three sets. No-ad scoring and a seven-point tiebreaker (first to seven points, must win by two points) at six-games-all will be used for all matches. In doubles, a 10-point match tiebreaker will be played in lieu of a third set.
Automatic qualification into the Division I singles championship is awarded to any conference with one or more eligible singles players ranked in the ITA Top 125 for eligible/entered singles players. Â For conferences with more than one singles player within the ITA Top 125 eligible/entered singles players, the subcommittee applies the NCAA selection criteria to determine which student-athlete is the automatic qualifier from those conferences. All singles players must have a minimum of 13 started singles matches, with six matches in the spring, in order to be selected as an automatic qualifier or an at-large selection.
Automatic qualification into the Division I doubles championship is awarded to any conference with one or more eligible doubles teams ranked in the ITA Top 60 for eligible/entered doubles teams. For conferences with more than one doubles team within the ITA Top 60 eligible/entered doubles teams, the subcommittee applies the NCAA selection criteria to determine which doubles team is the automatic qualifier from those conferences. All doubles teams must have started a minimum of 10 doubles matches, with a minimum of four matches in the spring, in order to be selected as an automatic qualifier or an at-large selection.
In recent years, UNC All-Americas and future professional talents like William Blumberg, Rinky Hijikata, Brian Cernoch and others have made big splashes on the national stage.
The Tar Heels will hope for more of the same success after the NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Subcommittee on Tuesday night selected the 64 singles players and 32 doubles teams that will compete in the 2023 NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championships.
UNC graduate students Cernoch and Ryan Seggerman both grabbed at-large invitations to the singles field. Seggerman was a second-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference choice in singles in 2023, while Cernoch was a third-team singles pick.
It's Cernoch's second consecutive NCAA singles berth. He earned All-America honors in 2022 in his first year in the singles field, reaching the NCAA Round of 16. He's a three-time All-America who also owns a pair of doubles All-America performances as a Tar Heel.
Meanwhile, Seggerman and sophomore Casey Kania, Carolina's top doubles team all season and a first-team All-ACC doubles pick, were an at-large selection to the 32-team doubles field.
Seggerman, a graduate transfer from Princeton in his first season as a Tar Heel, qualified for the NCAA doubles field twice for Princeton in 2019 and 2022. It's Kania's first NCAA doubles appearance.
UNC's No. 2 doubles team of Cernoch and Benjamin Kittay are the first alternate in the doubles field.
The singles and doubles competition will be conducted May 22-27 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla., after the conclusion of the team championship, which runs from May 18-20. This year's event will be conducted jointly with the NCAA Divisions II and III Men's and Women's Tennis Championships and hosted by the University of Central Florida and the Greater Orlando Sports Commission.
All matches will be the best-of-three sets. No-ad scoring and a seven-point tiebreaker (first to seven points, must win by two points) at six-games-all will be used for all matches. In doubles, a 10-point match tiebreaker will be played in lieu of a third set.
Automatic qualification into the Division I singles championship is awarded to any conference with one or more eligible singles players ranked in the ITA Top 125 for eligible/entered singles players. Â For conferences with more than one singles player within the ITA Top 125 eligible/entered singles players, the subcommittee applies the NCAA selection criteria to determine which student-athlete is the automatic qualifier from those conferences. All singles players must have a minimum of 13 started singles matches, with six matches in the spring, in order to be selected as an automatic qualifier or an at-large selection.
Automatic qualification into the Division I doubles championship is awarded to any conference with one or more eligible doubles teams ranked in the ITA Top 60 for eligible/entered doubles teams. For conferences with more than one doubles team within the ITA Top 60 eligible/entered doubles teams, the subcommittee applies the NCAA selection criteria to determine which doubles team is the automatic qualifier from those conferences. All doubles teams must have started a minimum of 10 doubles matches, with a minimum of four matches in the spring, in order to be selected as an automatic qualifier or an at-large selection.
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