SPARTANBURG, S.C. – With the start of its spring tennis season less than 10 days away, the USC Upstate men's tennis team earned a spot in the Campbell/ITA College Tennis Rankings, coming in at No. 60.

The Spartans, under the direction of head coach Oliver Trittenwein, will kick-off the spring slate at Georgia Tech on Sunday, January 16^th, at 9:00 a.m., but will have to count on underclassmen to fill the void after Javier Tori, Jack Roux and Renzo Airaldi graduated last spring.

Last season, Upstate, which won the Atlantic Sun Conference regular season with a perfect 10-0 record, faced off against eight teams that finished amongst the top 75, posting wins over No. 61 San Diego (4-3, March 11), No. 70 Yale (6-1, March 16) and No. 51 ETSU (4-3, March 20).

The tough schedule proved to be important in the team's success, as the Spartans also beat Big South champions Winthrop, 4-3 on March 23, and faced six teams that made the NCAA Tournament field en route to the team's first outright conference title in school history.

Joining the Spartans in the rankings were the Bucs of ETSU, who are ranked 51^st in the preseason poll.  The Campbell/ITA College Tennis Rankings are released every week starting on January 25^th.