Big South Announces 2025 Preseason Men's Tennis Poll & Honors
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) –
Gardner-Webb University has been unanimously voted the preseason favorite in the annual Big South Conference men’s tennis preseason poll by the league’s head coaches, the conference office announced Thursday. In addition, GWU senior
Eduardo Dias (Parana, Brazil) was voted the Men’s Tennis Preseason Player of the Year.
The Runnin’ Bulldogs, who won the Big South regular-season championship last year and finished 20-4 overall, earned the top spot in the 2025 poll with 25 points and all five first-place votes.
Presbyterian College was second in the preseason ranking with 16 points, just ahead of defending Big South champion
UNC Asheville (15 points).
Longwood landed in the fourth spot with 13 points, with
Radford in the fifth and final position with six points.
During the 2024 fall season, Dias won the inaugural Big South Fall Singles Championship as the No. 1 seed, and teamed with
Numa Lemieux-Monette to capture the doubles title. Dias then competed in the ITA Conference Masters Championship, where he was seeded No. 5 in the singles portion and No. 4 in the 32-draw doubles tournament, where he reached the quarterfinals with Lemieux-Monette. Dias also went 5-1 (3-0 in singles) at the Davidson Fall Invitational, and won the doubles championship with Lemieux-Monette at the Stockton Cup. Last year’s Big South Men’s Tennis Player of the Year, Dias is a three-time First-Team All-Big South selection in singles and two-time honoree in doubles. He was 20-1 at No. 1 singles in 2024 and was honored five times last season as the Big South Conference Player of the Week.
The 2025 men’s tennis season is scheduled to begin this Friday, Jan. 17. The 2025 Big South Men’s Tennis Championship is slated for April 17-18, and the top four teams in the final Big South standings will qualify for the conference tournament, with the semifinals and finals at the Lexington County Tennis Complex in Lexington, S.C. The champion receives the Big South’s automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.
2025 MEN'S TENNIS PRESEASON POLL
| Rk - School (first-place votes) |
Points |
| 1 - Gardner-Webb (5) |
25 |
| 2 - Presbyterian College |
16 |
| 3 - UNC Asheville |
15 |
| 4 - Longwood |
13 |
| 5 - Radford |
6 |
Note: points are based on a weighted system, with first-place votes receiving 5 points, followed by 4 points for second-place, and so on.