ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell men's tennis team has been selected as one of the 64 teams for this year's NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championship, it was announced Monday evening during its annual selection show.

Cornell (17-6) will be appearing in its third NCAA Tournament — its first since 2017 — and will travel to the Durham Regional where it will play No. 22-ranked Auburn (17-11) on Saturday, May 6 at 11 a.m.

UNC Wilmington and No. 12-seeded Duke are the other two programs in the Durham Regional.

The Big Red previously played in the NCAA Tournament in 2011 when it lost its first round match to Louisville in its regional, and in 2017 when it defeated Rice in first-round action before falling to Baylor in the second round of the Waco Regional.

Sophomore Radu Papoe, who is ranked No. 75 in the latest ITA singles rankings, has a Cornell-leading 15 victories this spring. Papoe has a 15-2 record exclusively in matches at No. 1 singles. His nine-match win streak was snapped last Saturday by Columbia's Michael Zheng, who had a ranking of No. 33.

Papoe's classmate, Adit Sinha, is right behind him with a 14-4 record in dual matches this spring. Fellow sophomore Nathan Mao (11-6), senior Vladislav Melnic (10-9), and Petar Teodorovic (10-11) also have double-digit win totals for the Big Red.

In doubles action this season, Cornell has excelled at No. 3 doubles, winning 12 of the 18 completed matches. Teodorovic and junior Samuel Paquette have won a team-leading 12 doubles matches, 11 of which have come the final doubles slot.

The tandems of Papoe/Melnic and Sinha/Mao have won six doubles matches, which is tied for second on the team.

Scouting Auburn

Auburn, who is ranked No. 22 in the most recent ITA rankings, concluded the regular season with a 17-11 overall record and a 5-7 mark in SEC play.

The Tigers fell to Florida, 4-1, in the first match of the SEC Championship on April 20. Auburn has lost its last four matches and has registered six points in the span.

Tyler Stice, who is ranked No. 54 nationally, has been Auburn's go-to player at No. 1 singles, posting a 13-11 record in dual matches this spring. Stice earned his third consecutive First Team All-SEC honor as it was announced by the conference last Thursday.

Raul Dobai (13-6) and Billy Blaydes (13-7) have also matched Stice's team-leading 13 victories.

Finn Murgett (11-6) and Alejandro Moreno (11-7) have also registered at least 10 victories in singles this season.

Moreno and Blaydes were both named to the All-SEC Freshman Team this past Thursday.

In doubles action, Murgett and Will Nolan have posted a 10-8 at the top doubles spot this season. Blaydes and Jan Galka have an Auburn-best 13 victories in doubles, 12 of which have come at No. 2 doubles. Moreno and Stice have an 11-8 record exclusively at No. 3 doubles.

Dobai and Murgett are ranked No. 17 in the most recent doubles rankings and Galka and Moreno are ranked No. 68.

This will be the second all-time meeting between Cornell and Auburn. The Tigers won the meeting, 4-2, in a neutral site match in Montgomery, Ala.

It will be Cornell's fifth time in the last six years of competition in which it is playing an SEC opponent. The Big Red has lost its last three matches against SEC opposition after defeating Tennessee, 4-3, on Jan. 29, 2017 in Cambridge, Mass. Cornell's losses have come against Ole Miss (4-2 on Feb. 2, 2018), Arkansas (4-3 on Jan. 26, 2019 in the ITA Kick-off Weekend in Columbus, Ohio), and Vanderbilt (4-3 on Feb. 27, 2022 in Cambridge, Mass.).