KU tennis earns NCAA Tournament bid, will face South Carolina

By Henry Greenstein     Apr 28, 2025
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article image Emma Crouch/Kansas Athletics
The Kansas tennis team gathers at the match against Wichita State on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, in Lawrence.

The Kansas tennis team has received an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament and will face South Carolina on Friday at 12 p.m. Central Time in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

This is KU’s seventh trip to the tournament under head coach Todd Chapman, as the Jayhawks return following a one-year absence. In 2023, they beat Charlotte in the opening round before falling to N.C. State. Chapman’s best season came in 2019, when KU won the Big 12 tournament, served as a host and advanced to the Sweet 16.

This time, the host is No. 5 North Carolina, which will take on VCU on Friday. Whoever emerges will face the KU-South Carolina winner on Saturday at 3 p.m.

“This is a place we expect our program to be every year, in the NCAA Tournament, so we’re really excited to be back,” Chapman said in a press release.

As of Monday, KU ranked No. 37 overall in the International Tennis Association’s ranking of the top 75 teams. The Jayhawks finished their regular season 13-10, including 7-6 in Big 12 Conference play, before taking down TCU but falling to top-seeded Texas Tech in the league tournament.

“I think we’ve been playing our best tennis in the last month of the season,” Chapman said. “We’re excited about what’s next and the opportunity to keep going.”

The Jayhawks’ resume included home victories over then-No. 26 Arizona State on March 7, then-No. 33 TCU on March 21 and then-No. 53 Kansas State in the regular-season finale on April 13. On the road, KU also beat then-No. 57 Iowa State on April 5 and then-No. 72 Colorado on March 2.

The doubles pairing of Gracie Mulville, who spent her first two collegiate seasons at South Carolina, and Heike Janse Van Vuuren ranks No. 26 in the country with a record of 24-10, including 12-8 at No. 1 doubles this spring. Mulville, Van Vuuren and sophomore Kyoka Kubo have also been steady presences as the top three members of KU’s singles lineup.

South Carolina, which also has a 14-11 record, is led by No. 15 Sarah Hamner and No. 52 Kaitlyn Carnicella, who combine to form the No. 12 doubles pairing and each received SEC all-conference honors (Hamner on the first team, Carnicella on the second).

The winner of UNC’s four-team regional will advance to super regionals the following weekend. The women’s team championship begins May 15 in Waco, Texas.

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Written By Henry Greenstein

Henry is the sports editor at the Lawrence Journal-World and KUsports.com, and serves as the KU beat writer while managing day-to-day sports coverage. He previously worked as a sports reporter at The Bakersfield Californian and is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis (B.A., Linguistics) and Arizona State University (M.A., Sports Journalism). Though a native of Los Angeles, he has frequently been told he does not give off "California vibes," whatever that means.