NC State men’s and women’s tennis teams earn NCAA bids

Both the men’s and women’s tennis teams learned Monday that they’ll be playing in the postseason. The NC State men—or racket-wielding smacksmen, as they prefer to be known—are heading to Knoxville with regional host Tennessee, which is the No. 14 overall seed. The Pack opens with Middle Tennessee State.

The women, meanwhile, earned a hosting spot for themselves as the No. 12 overall seed and will host VCU, Tennessee, and Furman. Advancing to the Sweet 16 would mean a potential rematch with Duke, which handed the ladies one of their three league losses this season.

Neither State program has much history of success—and if you’ve ever seen what the tennis “facility” looked like before the renovations, you know why—so this is an encouraging sign of progress for both. The women’s team has never been a regional host before. (Don’t think the men have either, for that matter.)