Getting an invite to the NCAA Tennis Championships has become a habit for both South Carolina State men’s and women’s teams.

For the fifth time under head coach Hardeep Judge, the Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs earned post-season berths after winning the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament. It was the eight conference title for the men and fifth straight for the women.

What’s also become true for both programs is a challenging opening round matches on the road despite their winning records. This year is no exception as S.C. State will be paired against the highly-seeded University of Georgia tennis programs on May 8.

In the men’s case, it’s a first-round matchup against the two-time defending national champion and fourth-ranked Bulldogs (22-3) - winners of seven titles overall and 60 consecutive matches on their homecourt of Dan Magill Tennis Complex.

“We’re excited about being the number four seed after a tough season where we were challenged each time out, and we held up really well,” Georgia coach Manuel Diaz said. “We were finalist at the National Team Indoors, played well during the SEC season and now we know it will be a big challenge again in the NCAA Tournament. We’ll have to stay focused and execute well in our matches, and we get to start out playing at home. Once you get on the court, you forget about your ranking, the seeding, and you know you have to win to advance and if you lose you go home.”

It’s an even more daunting task for the S.C. State women facing a Lady Bulldogs program ranked second overall and who shut them out back in 2007. UGA (23-2) has won two national championships overall and are making its 23rd consecutive tournament appearance.

Making this an even more uphill battle for the Lady Bulldogs is the unavailability of MEAC tournament Most Outstanding Performer Sarai Torres. The Czech Republic sophomore underwent knee surgery and is expected back in the fall, according to Judge.

Despite the long odds, Judge sees this latest matchup as an opportunity to further help the program grow into a national power like UGA.

“The approach is we’re just going to use it to get better,” he said. “That’s the level that we want to complete that. I think the guys’ team, we can play with them. We have some injuries on our girls’ team that really hurt us going into the NCAA championships, but the guys’ team every year we’re getting better and that’s where we want to be at just to see that type of level of play.”

Judge cites the school’s inability to get matches against the larger Division I programs - specifically in-state schools Clemson and the University of South Carolina - as a primary reason why S.C. State consistently receives a low seed at the NCAA Tennis Championships. While schools like the University of North Carolina and Wake Forest have scheduled MEAC teams, S.C. State has no such luck getting the same cooperation from Clemson, USC and other large Division I schools.

Judge is hoping a strong showing in the NCAA Tennis Championship against UGA will lead to more such matchups in the future.

“We can play ranked teams and lose and still get more points toward our standing and actually move up in the standings,” Judge said. “That’s just the way the ITA bases the point system. We could play Georgia five times during the regular season and be a Top 50 team losing to them every time and we go 20-0 with our schedule and still not be Top 50. We’re going to use this to get tougher matches for our program.”

S.C. State plans to hold a send-off at 11 a.m. Friday at the Bulldog Lounge in the Kirkland W. Green Student Center. The public is invited to attend the event.

n T&D Senior Sports Writer Thomas Grant Jr. can be reached by e-mail at tgrant@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5547. Read his blog, Following the Bulldogs, and other stories on-line at TheTandD.com.

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