Rice and South Florida will represent the American Athletic Conference in the 2025 NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship, which begins Friday, May 2 with first-round matches.
Rice, the 2025 American Men’s Tennis champion, earned the conference’s automatic bid to the tournament. South Florida was selected as an at-large team.
Rice will travel to College Station, Texas, to face No. 16 seed Texas A&M in the first round. If the Owls win, they will move on to play either Baylor or Nebraska in the second round. Rice has won six of its last seven matches heading into the NCAA Championship. However, the Owls fell 6-1 to Texas A&M during a regular season match on March 11 in College Station.
This marks Rice’s second straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament and the program’s 14th trip since the dual match format was adopted in 1977.
South Florida will head to Orlando to face Florida in its first-round match. If the Bulls win, they will meet either Miami (Fla.) or No. 15 seed UCF in the second round. South Florida did not play Florida during the regular season but split two matches against UCF, including a 6-1 victory on March 9 in Orlando. The Bulls also faced Miami earlier this year, losing 5-2 on January 31.
This is South Florida’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2022 and its eighth as a member of The American.
First- and second-round matches will be played May 2-3. Each site features four teams competing in a single-elimination format. Winners will advance to the super regionals on May 9 or 10. Those who succeed in the super regionals will move on to the Hurd Tennis Center in Waco, Texas, where the final eight teams will compete for the national championship May 17-19.
The American Athletic Conference has sent multiple teams to the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship every year since its formation in the 2013-14 season.
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