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PENSACOLA, Fla. - No. 7 UWF men's tennis (17-5, 8-1 GSC) is set to head to the campus of conference rival Valdosta State for the second season in a row and third in the last five tournaments for the NCAA DII South Regional. Occupying the No. 5 seed in the South Region, the Argos are one of three regional teams heading to Valdosta, Ga., against the top-seeded Blazers. 
 
UWF, the GSC regular season champions, will take on No. 4 and SSC champion Barry (14-6, 4-3 SSC), the 4-seed, on Monday, May 13 at 8 am ET/7 am CT. The Argos or Bucs will take on the winner of the other regional semifinal matchup between host and GSC champion Valdosta State (20-3, 8-1 GSC) and 8-seed and SIAC champion Spring Hill (18-8, 12-0 SIAC) on Tuesday, May 14 at 1 pm ET/12 pm CT. The winner of the finals matchup will advance to the final site of the national tournament from May 20-25 in Altamonte Springs, Fla., hosted by Rollins College and the Greater Orlando Sports Commission.
 
About UWF:
The Argos are playing in their 27th regional tournament in as many seasons at the NCAA DII level and their 25th under Derrick Racine. UWF has won all seven of its matchups at home, including a huge 4-3 upset of Valdosta State that broke the tie in the standings to decide the conference regular season title. The Argos fell in the semifinals of the GSC Championship to Mississippi College, who also defeated the former in the regular season and was then swept by VSU in the GSC finals. 
 
The Argos are led by four All-GSC selections, as well as the GSC Coach of the Year in Racine, who took home his 14th such award on the men's side and 28th total. Sebastian Rondon and Sebastian Sotelo both placed on the First Team. Rondon is 25th in the ITA Singles Rankings with a 17-4 overall record and 9-0 mark in conference play, while Sotelo is 37th and 12-6 overall, 6-3 in GSC. Diego Duran and Albin Ekenros both received Second Team votes. Duran won five GSC Freshman of the Week awards and owns an overall record of 14-2 and 8-1 GSC record. Ekenros is 17-3 overall and 7-2 in GSC play.
 
The Argos are looking to earn their 18th national tournament berth and fifth national championship.  
 
About Barry:
In order to advance to the final site, UWF will first have to go through the Barry Buccaneers. Barry is the current dynasty of DII tennis as winners of the last four men's national championships and the last six on the women's side. The Bucs are led by interim head coach Fred Bonal after the departure of two-time national champion head coach Thomas Hipp, who stepped down two games into the season in February after taking over the program in 2021 upon the retirement of George Samuel after 31 seasons and five national titles of his own. Despite the middle-of-the-pack SSC finish, the Bucs reasserted their dominance by taking down three fellow South Regional participants in 7-seed Florida Southern, 3-seed Rollins and 2-seed Saint Leo in consecutive days in the SSC Championship to wrap up the month of April. 
 
With the exception of a 4-3 home loss to Valdosta State, Barry is 4-1 against Wayne State (Mich.), Columbus State and Saint Leo, its three other common opponents shared with UWF. The Bucs are 2-1 against Saint Leo with the wins coming in the ITA Men's Team Indoor Championship and SSC Championship, and they went undefeated in the former against those three teams compared to a 1-2 mark in the event for UWF.
 
The Bucs are led by three players in the ITA Singles Rankings, with two of them in the Top 10. Joao Ferreira, a redshirt junior who played the last two seasons for D1 Alabama after a year at SSC rival Lynn, is No. 6 in the nation with a 12-5 record. Adam Lynch, a true sophomore, comes in at No. 9 with an 8-6 singles record. David Rieme, a senior who played his first two seasons at Auburn Montgomery, owns an 11-1 record and is No. 58. Ferreira and Rieme are No. 22 in the ITA Doubles Rankings with a 7-5 record, while Tim Riedel and Bastien Rieme are No. 18 with a 14-4 record as a doubles team. 
 
Barry leads the all-time series with UWF 8-5, winning the last six meetings after the Argos took five of the first seven. The teams have met six times in the postseason. The Argos are just 1-5 in those meetings, but the win came in the national championship match in 2017 that won the program its fourth national title in a 5-2 final score to wrap up a 32-1 season. In their last four postseason matchups with the Bucs, UWF has seen its 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022 seasons end, with three of those coming in the South Regional.
 
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