Big South Announces 2024 Preseason Men's Tennis Poll & Honors
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – For the first time,
Gardner-Webb University has been 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 first-ever Men’s Tennis Preseason Player of the Year.
The Runnin’ Bulldogs, who went 16-7 overall last year and was a co-regular-season champion with their 4-1 Big South record, earned the top spot in the 2024 poll with 24 points and four first-place votes. Defending men’s tennis champion
Presbyterian College was second in the preseason ranking with 19 points and collected the remaining first-place vote.
UNC Asheville finished third in the balloting with 15 points, while
Radford landed in the fourth spot with 11 points.
Longwood rounded out the predicted order of finish in fifth with six points.
During the 2023 fall season, Dias won two singles tournaments (10k Charlotte and UNCW). He also won three rounds at the ITA All-American Championships with wins over Stetson, Georgia Southern and Yale before falling to Texas A&M. Dias and his doubles partner were ranked in the Fall 32 in Division I, and is the Big South’s highest-rated player in UTR and WTN rankings. Dias was selected to the Big South All-Conference First-Team for singles and doubles in 2023, and was runner-up in the postseason Player of the Year voting for the second consecutive season. He had 16 wins each in singles and in doubles last year, and went 16-6 overall and 3-2 in singles matches as the only GWU player to compete in the top-flight all season. Dias recorded a 13-2 mark against non-conference opponents and posted an eight-match win streak. In doubles, he paired with
Chrisjan Van Wyk starting in the No. 2 flight, then moved to the No. 1 position after the first four competitions of the spring, and the duo strung together 12 consecutive wins over a 13-match unbeaten streak. A three-time Big South Player of the Week honoree last spring, Dias clinched four wins for the team, tied for the team-high. He notched his 50th career win with his 7-6 (2), 6-0 singles victory over UNC Asheville (April 6) in just his second season at Gardner-Webb.
The 2024 men’s tennis season is scheduled to begin this Saturday, Jan. 13, with Presbyterian in action. The 2024 Big South Men’s Tennis Championship is slated for April 20-21, and the top four teams in the final Big South standings will qualify for the conference tournament, with the semifinals and finals at the Marion Diehl Tennis Center in Charlotte, N.C. The champion receives the Big South’s automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.
2024 MEN'S TENNIS PRESEASON POLL
| Rk - School (first-place votes) |
Points |
| 1 - Gardner-Webb (4) |
24 |
| 2 - Presbyterian College (1) |
19 |
| 3 - UNC Asheville |
15 |
| 4 - Radford |
11 |
| 5 - Longwood |
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.