Poughkeepsie, N.Y. - The Marist men's tennis team will face #5 Mississippi in the first round of the NCAA Tennis Tournament on Saturday, May 10th in Oxford, Mississippi; it was announced Tuesday during the NCAA Selection Show on ESPNews. The Red Foxes were one of 31 teams to receive an automatic berth into the tournament. They beat Fairfield 7-0 in the MAAC Championship match to secure the berth.
Marist had a fantastic regular season that saw them go 14-4 overall and a perfect 6-0 in the MAAC. The tournament win was their sixth overall, and it will be their sixth trip to the NCAA's.
Marist has been led by senior Greg Marks (Newburgh, N.Y.). The Red Foxes' captain has a fantastic 13 match winning streak heading into the tournament. Sophomore Loic Sessagesimi (La Tour-de-Peliz, Switzerland) has been great out of the second singles spot all season and was named the Most Outstanding Performer at the MAAC Championship.
The Red Foxes will have three rookies in the singles rotation. Marcus von Nordheim (Munich, Germany), Nicolas Pisecky (Laussane, Switzerland), and Landon Greene (Palos Verde, Calif.) will occupy the three, four, and six spots.
Sophomore Christian Coley (Cheshire, Conn.) has anchored the number one singles spot for Marist this entire season.
Ole Miss was the 2008 SEC Tournament Champion and went 21-4 during the regular season. It is the eighth year in a row the Rebels are a first and second round host school.
There are 64 total tournament teams that are split into 16 different first and second round sites. The site hosts are the top 16 seeds in the tournament. Vanderbilt and Indiana will square off in the other first round matchup in Oxford. The winners of the two first round matches will face each other in the second round for the right to head to Tulsa, Oklahoma to play in the Sweet 16.
The time for next Saturday's match has yet to be determined.