Michigan State men’s tennis heads to NCAA Tournament for second time in program history
EAST LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – After stringing together an impressive 22-6 season, Michigan State’s Tennis team was confident they would make the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in program history. The team learned where their journey towards a national title would begin on Monday night.
The Spartans are headed to Boston where they will meet the undefeated, University of Denver Pioneers in the round of 64. The program’s first NCAA appearance was back in 2013 when head coach Harry Jadun was a sophomore on MSU’s team. 11 years later, MSU is spearheaded by another sophomore, the Big Ten Player of the Year and Okemos, MI native Ozan Baris.
“It’s pretty special,” Baris said. “It hasn’t been like this before and it’s been some time since we made the tournament, but being a part of it is pretty special and I think it just shows what we’ve done and the vision that we have. We want to continue growing as well.”
“I mean hopefully my experience there will help the guys, but I am just a small part of it honestly,” Jadun said. “It is really the guys. We get them here and we train them but at the end of the day when the matches are on the line, they have to go out there and perform at a high level. My first time around I was a six-singles player, so I wasn’t the star of the show, and the same thing here. They’re doing all the work and they’re putting the hard yards in and we’re really just there to support them. So really fun for them and it will be a cool weekend in Boston.”
MSU’s matches against Denver will begin on Friday, May 3rd.
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