SoCon Women’s Tennis Championship pairings announced

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – ETSU has earned the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Southern Conference Women’s Tennis Championship, which will be contested April 18-20 at the Champions Club in Chattanooga, Tennessee. 

The 64th-ranked Bucs, who claimed the top seed for the first time since joining the league, enter the tournament with an 14-7 overall record and went a perfect 7-0 in league play, downing Furman 4-3 on Saturday in a battle of SoCon unbeatens to clinch the regular-season SoCon title. ETSU downed its quarterfinal opponent, No. 8 seed UNCG, 7-0 on February 15. The Bucs and Spartans, which went 3-18 overall and 1-6 in SoCon, last met in the quarterfinals of the SoCon tournament in 2022, which ETSU won 4-0. They will square off at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. 

No. 4 seed Wofford went 14-6 overall and 4-3 in SoCon play and will face No. 5 seed Mercer, which enters tournament play 12-7 overall and 4-3 in league matches, on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. The pair met on March 29 of the regular season, with Wofford claiming a 5-2 win. The teams met in the 2019 SoCon tournament quarterfinals, with the Terriers claiming a 4-0 win over the bears. 

In the bottom half of the bracket, No. 2 seed Furman faces No. 7 seed Western Carolina  at 10:30 a.m. Thursday. The Paladins, which went 10-12 overall and 6-1 in league play, topped the Catamounts (9-13, 1-6) on March 24, 5-2. Furman is 2-0 against Western Carolina in SoCon tournament play, with the Paladins winning in the 2016 and 2017 quarterfinals.

The final matchup sees No. 3 seed Samford facing No. 6 seed Chattanooga on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. The Bulldogs went 9-11 overall and 4-3 in SoCon play, while the Mocs enter the tournament having gone 8-13 overall and 1-6 in league action.  Samford claimed a 4-3 win on April 4 in the league’s regular-season matchup. The teams have met three times in the SoCon tournament, with the Bulldogs leading the series, 2-1. The last meeting was in the 2017 quarterfinals which Samford won 4-2.

Friday’s semifinals are at 10 a.m., with Saturday’s title match set for 1 p.m. 

Among current members, Furman owns a league-best 21 SoCon tournament titles, while Chattanooga has won five and ETSU has won two. 

April 21 will serve as the rain date for the championship. 

SoCon Women’s Tennis Championship 

Chattanooga, Tenn. – Champions Club 

Thursday, April 18

Match 1: No. 1 ETSU vs. No. 8 UNCG, 8:30 a.m. 

Match 2: No. 4 Wofford vs. No. 5 Mercer, 8:30 a.m. 

Match 3: No. 3 Samford vs. No. 6 Chattanooga, 10:30 a.m. 

Match 4: No. 2 Furman vs. No. 7 Western Carolina, 10:30 a.m. 

Friday, April 19

Match 5: Match 1 winner vs. Match 2 winner, 10 a.m. 

Match 6: Match 3 winner vs. Match 4 winner, 10 a.m. 

Saturday, April 20

Match 7: Match 5 winner vs. Match 6 winner, 1 p.m.