Fresh off of its first Southern Conference Tournament championship in program history, the Elon University women’s tennis team jumped back into the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s (ITA) national rankings at No. 75 for the first time since the week of Jan. 21.
The Phoenix began the spring season ranked No. 74 in the nation, but an 0-4 start against four ranked teams — No. 54 Virginia Tech, No. 3 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, No. 4 University of Georgia and No. 55 Kansas State University — saw the team fall from the rankings.
Elon reeled off an eight-match winning streak following the 0-4 start but experienced two separate two-match losing streaks before reeling off five straight wins to finish the season, three of which came in the SoCon Tournament.
In the SoCon semifinals, the Phoenix defeated top-seeded Furman University, ranked No. 61 in the nation at the time. The Paladins went 9-0 against SoCon opponents before falling to the Phoenix and entered the tournament having won 10 of the previous 16 SoCon titles.
In the championship match, Elon defeated No. 73 Samford University, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, to win its first conference championship since joining the Division I ranks in 2000.
The Phoenix earned the SoCon’s automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament with the win, and will face top-seeded Georgia in the first round May 9 in Athens, Ga.
The Elon men’s tennis team moved up three spots to No. 51 in the ITA’s May 1 rankings. The team is also coming off of a SoCon championship, its second in program history and first since 2007.
Senior Cameron Silverman moved up three spots in the ITA singles rankings to No. 36 and earned a bid to the NCAA Singles Tournament Championship April 30. Silverman achieved a perfect 12-0 record in SoCon play this season and was named SoCon Player of the Year for the second consecutive season, as well as the SoCon Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.