Gardner-Webb Men’s Tennis Ranked No. 10 in ITA Carolina Region Rankings – Gardner-Webb University Athletics

TEMPE, Ariz. – After posting a program-best 20 victories during the 2024 spring season, the Gardner-Webb Men’s Tennis team earned the program’s first regional ranking from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, which was recently announced by the organization.

Gardner-Webb finished the season ranked No. 10 in the Carolina region by the ITA. The Runnin’ Bulldogs went 20-4 this past spring, en route to the team’s first outright Big South Conference Regular Season Championship.

ACC power Wake Forest was the No.1 team in the Carolina Region. The Deamon Deacons also finished No.6 in the National Poll.

No.2 Duke followed Wake Forest in the Carolina Region poll and South Carolina was ranked No.3.  Rounding out the Top Five were NC State and North Carolina.

UNC Charlotte, who defeated the visiting Runnin’ Bulldogs 5-2 in a tight battle during the past season, was ranked No.6. in the Carolina Region and cracked the Top 50 in the National Poll at No.46.

Clemson took the seventh spot, followed by UNC Wilmington at No.8.

Elon, who edged the Runnin’ Bulldogs 4-3 in a tough match up on its home court, earned the ninth spot ahead of Gardner-Webb, which rounded out the Carolina Region Top 10 at No.10.

During their record-setting spring, the Runnin’ Bulldogs opened the season with a program-record 15 consecutive match victories before losing at nationally ranked UNC Charlotte.  

 

The Dawgs went unbeaten (4-0) in Big South Conference play and captured a share of the conference championship for the second consecutive season.

 

This marked the third time under head coach Mike Griffith that Gardner-Webb has claimed a share of the regular season title, along with the No.1-seed for the conference tournament.

 

Six times last spring a Gardner-Webb player was selected Big South Player of the Week while four times the Dawgs earned Freshman of the Week honors. 

Five different Runnin’ Bulldogs garnered All-Conference honors highlighted by senior Eduardo Dias (Parana, Brazil) being named the Big South Men’s Tennis Player of the Year.

Griffith was chosen the Big South Conference Men’s Tennis Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season.

Dias in a word this spring – Dominant! 

The Parana, Brazil native, who has chosen to return for one final season in Boiling Springs, was selected Big South All-Conference First-Team for singles and doubles for the third-consecutive year while winning the Conference Player of the Year Honor for the first time in his distinguished career. 

Dias was the runner-up in the Player of the Year voting the prior two seasons.  

Playing in the No.1 singles spot the entire spring for the Runnin’ Bulldogs, Dias posted a 20-1 record, including 18-consecutive victories from the start of the season. His three-year overall dual match singles record now stands at 50-13. 

Dias was also honored five-times as the Big South Conference Player of the Week.

In addition to his dominance in singles competition, Dias improved his career doubles record to 34-17 as he was selected First Team All-Conference Doubles for the second consecutive spring.

Dias and his senior doubles partner Chrisjan Van Wyk were ranked 32 in ITA doubles rankings.

Van Wyk (Pretoria, South Africa), who is the only key player not returning to next year’s squad, was also named First Team All-Conference Doubles for the second consecutive spring as he finished with a career doubles record of 47-26.

In addition to Dias and Chrisjan Van Wyk, junior Numa Lemieux-Monette (Montral, Canada) and freshman Jurie Terblanche (Perth, Australia) were named First Team All-Conference Doubles for the Runnin’ Bulldogs.

Terblanche was named Freshman of the Week twice while posting doubles record of 10-8.

Joining Dias as a First Team All-Conference Singles selection was junior Alex Lepine (Montreal, Canada), who was a Second Team All-Conference Singles pick as a sophomore.

Playing at No.2 singles throughout the spring, Lepine posted a 12-8 record in dual matches and currently holds a 39-22 career singles mark.

Lemieux-Monette was named to the Second Team All-Conference Singles for the Runnin’ Bulldogs along with Kim Niethammer (Harrenburg, Germany).

For the second-consecutive year Niethammer is a Second Team All-Conference Singles selection as posted an 18-3 singles record.

Niethammer opened the season with 12-straight victories and was named Big South Conference Player of the Week for the week of February 19^th through 25^th. The Harrenburg, Germany native as a career mark of 41-7.

Lemieux-Monette, who was also named to the Big South All-Academic Team, rounds out the Dawgs All-Conference selections

Lemieux-Monette, who was named Second-Team All-Conference in doubles pairing with Victor Putter in 2023, picks up Second-Team All-Conference in singles this season as he posted a 16-6 singles record in dual match competition. Lemieux-Monette opened the season with seven-consecutive victories and closed the regular-season with six-straight wins.

In addition to his outstanding play on the court, Lemieux-Monette aced it in the classroom with a 3.84 GPA as a biology major.

Griffith, who is now a three-time winner of the Conference’s Coach of the Year (2019, 2023, 2024), finished his 22nd and most successful year at the helm of the Runnin’ Bulldog men’s tennis program.

“The regional ranking is proof we had a fantastic season.” said Griffith, who will have seven of his top eight players return next spring.  “We were disappointed with our final match of the season, but those things happen.  In the end, we will use that pain to do better next year. With the players we have returning and our new additions, we have the team to go for our third-straight conference championship.”