Men’s Tennis Host South Carolina State Friday Afternoon – Charlotte Athletics

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte Men’s Tennis finally makes its 2024 Halton-Wagner Tennis Complex debut when the Niners host South Carolina State on Friday, February 16 at 1 p.m.

The 7-2 Niners are off to their best start since the 2014-15 season and return home after finishing a six-match road trip. (Charlotte played its first three matches of the spring slate at LifeTime Fitness due to weather.) Friday’s match against the Bulldogs is the first of a three-match homestand for Charlotte.

Attendance is free at Halton-Wagner and live statistics will also be available for the match.

LAST TIME OUT
Against UAB last Sunday, the Niners won 5-2, winning the match despite dropping the doubles point. Frederic Schlossmann rallied the Niners with a dominant showing at No. 1 singles. He defeated his Blazers opponent, 6-1, 6-1, at the top spot. With the assist by Matias Iturbe in the form of a 6-3, 6-1 win at No. 3 singles, Charlotte flipped its 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead. Vasco Prata’s court five 6-4, 6-4 win set up match point for Charlotte. It was Coy Simon that answered the call for the fourth point and win for the Niners. After dropping the first set, 6-1, Simon triumphed in the next two sets, 6-2, 6-3, to give the Niners their fourth point and the win.
 
Iturbe, Prata, and Simon had great weekends as the trio each went 2-0 in singles competition last week. In addition to two wins at No. 3 singles, Iturbe also grabbed a victory at No. 1 doubles, alongside partner Prata.

THE ROAD TRIP
This road trip served as a great test for the Niners as they played three fellow American Athletic Conference schools and earned victories over two (Florida Atlantic & UAB).
 
Overall, Charlotte went 4-2 over the road trip that began in Blacksburg, Va., and traveled through Florida and Atlanta, Ga. before meeting its conclusion in Huntsville, Ala.

The Niners enter Friday on a three-game win streak with four wins out of their last five matches.

SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
In 2024, the Bulldogs have started 1-3 with losses to Georgia State, North Florida, and Elon, but they do have a win over Coastal Carolina. Sophomore Novak Novakovic leads South Carolina State at the No. 1 singles slot. In the 5-2 win over the Chanticleers, Novakovic won 7-6, 6-1 on court one. Last summer, Novakovic, the reigning MEAC Rookie of the Year, captured the Serbian National Adult Championship.

Mikalai Bankou and Aissa Benchakroun each have a pair of wins on courts two and three, respectively. Benchakroun was a first-team All-MEAC selection in 2022-23.

South Carolina State is the three-time defending MEAC Conference Champions. Last season, the Bulldogs went 11-9, won the conference title, and qualified for the NCAA Tournament.

For the past 21 seasons, Hardeep Judge has led both the men’s and women’s tennis teams. He is an eight-time MEAC Coach of the Year in men’s tennis and a six-time conference Coach of the Year in women’s tennis. 

SERIES HISTORY
Charlotte has never lost to South Carolina State, winning all five matchups against the Bulldogs. In the five total matches, the Niners have dropped just five points combined. The last time these two schools squared off was April 9, 2022, when Charlotte won 7-0. Simon and Prata earned wins in singles and doubles competition against the Bulldogs.

MOVING UP
Gray, a graduate student and Boca Raton, Fla. native, returned to his hometown (Boca Raton, Fla) and recorded his first-ever collegiate win at No. 1 singles versus Florida Atlantic. His win at No. 2 doubles was also a first.

After recording wins at No. 3, 4, and 5 this season, Schlossmann earned his first win at No. 2 singles for Charlotte against Florida Atlantic.

HOME COOKING
Even though the Niners have yet to play on their homecourt of Halton-Wagner Tennis Complex this season, they are 3-0 at their second home of the indoor courts of LifeTime Fitness. Charlotte secured easy wins over Queens, The Citadel, and UNC Asheville, while only dropping four points combined to the three opponents. Schlossmann and Simon both won each of their singles matches in the three-game spell.

CHARLOTTE PREPARED FOR THE SPRING
The 23-match spring schedule is highlighted by the five 2023 NCAA Tournament participants, six fellow American Athletic Conference programs, and eight teams ranked in the top 75 of last season’s year-end ITA rankings. After opening the slate with three matches in Charlotte, the Niners will play six straight road matches from January 27 to February 11.

The next home stretch is from Feb. 17 to Feb. 25 and it features South Carolina State, a 2023 NCAA Tournament participant, and Liberty, the reigning 2023 NIT Champions.

Of Charlotte’s final six matches, four were either ranked in the ITA Top 75 or made the NCAA Tournament in 2023. Fortunately, the Niners will get three of those four stout opponents at home. Charlotte hosts Presbyterian on March 29. The Blue Hose went 16-10 last season and qualified for the 2023 NCAA Tournament by virtue of winning the 2023 Big South Championship. Two days later, the Niners will host AAC foe Rice.

NINERS INCREASE FIREPOWER
After returning seven players from last year and adding Spencer Gray from Auburn in the fall, the Niners have brought even more talent to the Queen City. Graduate transfer Alex Richards arrives from Wichita State as a touted doubles player and junior Frederic Schlossmann from Austin Peay.

Richards played four seasons with the Shockers and recorded an overall record of 42-31 in doubles competition, including 29 wins at the No. 1 slot. He ranked as high as No. 49 in the ITA national double rankings. Richards advanced to the doubles quarterfinals of the ITA Central Region Championships twice in the fall of 2021 and 2022.

Schlossmann was a two-time all-conference selection with the Governors. For his sophomore season in 2021-22, Schlossmann exclusively occupied the No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles spots and was named a first-team All-Ohio Valley selection after leading Austin Peay with eight doubles victories and six singles wins in the spring.

FALL REWIND
The Niners played in five events in the 2023-24 fall season, compiling a 48-34 mark in singles competition and a 22-11 record in doubles play. In the final tournament of the fall, the Wake Forest Invitational, Ivan Dreycopp defeated a nationally ranked player, a preseason top-75 player from Princeton. In the same event, Matias Iturbe went 4-0 to claim the B1 singles flight title.

Brett Gloria finds himself ranked among the top-125 players after a perfect 6-0 fall. He is ranked 117th in the most recent (Nov. 15) ITA Singles’ Ranking. Iturbe finished the fall with a team-high 11 singles victories (11-3 record) and a team-high nine doubles wins (9-3). Ivan Dreycopp was 8-3 in doubles play in the fall.

LAST SEASON’S YOUTH, THIS SEASON’S STRENGTH
In 2022-23, this Niners squad featured three freshmen, two sophomores, and a senior embarking on a 25-match Spring schedule that included six Power Five foes and 10 ranked opponents. Four Niners made their collegiate dual match debuts last season. Now entering this season, seven players return from last year’s 9-14 squad that experienced the program’s first-ever appearance at ITA Kickoff Weekend and defeated NCAA Tournament hopeful, Texas Tech, 4-3. In the match against the Red Raiders, then-sophomores Simon and Prata picked up victories at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, while then-freshmen Iturbe and Dreycopp recorded wins at No. 4 and No. 5 singles, respectively. All four of those players are returning.

The 2023-24 version of the 49ers are also bolstered by a healthy Prata, who missed the majority of the 2023 spring season due to a hand injury. With Prata (17-5 in dual match play as a freshman) injured, Charlotte was left without its No. 2 singles player and erased its best doubles pair last season.

A NEW CONFERENCE, A NEW ERA
Charlotte’s Men’s Tennis is now a member of the American Athletic Conference and the 2023-24 season will be the Niners’ first season in the AAC after 10 seasons in Conference USA. The program was previously apart of C-USA from 1995 to 2005 before being a member of the Atlantic-10 from 2006 to 2013.

The new goal for the Green & White will be to bring an AAC Championship back to the Queen City. With Bailey at the helm, Charlotte has made three Conference USA Tournament appearances, including the first appearance in the Conference USA title match in program history. The Niners’ lone conference tournament title came when they won three games in three days at the 2007 Atlantic 10 Tournament, which advanced Charlotte to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in history.

UP NEXT
Next weekend, the Niners host Coastal Carolina and Liberty at Halton-Wagner Tennis Complex. Charlotte battles the Chanticleers on Saturday, February 24 and the Flames on Sunday, February 25.