Jan. 12, 2005

STILLMAN, N.J. - North Carolina's men's tennis team checked in at No. 18 in the first preseason ranking issued Wednesday by the Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Association in Stillman, N.J.

Carolina is coming off an outstanding 2004 campaign in which the Tar Heels shared the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season championship and finished 22-5 overall, earning an NCAA Tournament berth for the 12th time in the past 13 seasons. UNC also finished No. 17 in the final ITA poll of 2004 and the Tar Heels were the No. 11 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

"Obviously it is nice to be ranked in the preseason but that ranking is based more on what last year's team accomplished," says veteran Tar Heel head coach Sam Paul, who has won ACC Coach of the Year honors four times.

"The league is obviously going to be very difficult this year with three teams in the Top 20 and 10 of 11 teams overall ranked in the poll."

Carolina will play 14 of its 25 regular season matches against teams in the ITA preseason poll. Carolina opens against Davidson on January 22.