In the new NCAA Division II rankings released today, the Armstrong Pirates men’s team has moved up to #1. The team is undefeated and has four players in the top ten in individual singles rankings: Georgi Rumenov at #1, Eudaldo Bonet at #3, Mikk Irdoja at #5, and Matus Mydla at #10.
Armstrong’s women’s team is now ranked #3 in the nation with Barbora Krtickova at #4 in singles and Aleksandra Filipovski at #7.
This stellar season is stunningly ho-hum for Armstrong tennis, which under Coach Simon Earnshaw has been one of the top programs in NCAA DII for years.
The regular season ends in mid-April and then both teams will head into tournament play.
I dropped by Bacon Park’s lovely tennis center (where Armstrong is playing home matches until courts on campus are renovated) last Sunday for part of the match against USC-Aiken. I got there about half an hour after it started, and one of the women’s doubles matches was almost already over.
The facility at Bacon Park is beautiful, and it’s a great spot to see really high-quality tennis up close. I tried to take at least a few shots of all the matches, but I failed — some of the courts are just much easier to shoot than others, and some of the matches were much shorter than others. The men’s #2 doubles match was hotly contested (and was on a great court for photos). And some of the matches featured longer points, which are simply easier to get shots of.
At the end of the day both Armstrong teams won 9-0.
The next home match is Saturday, March 31st at 2 p.m.
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