SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Wofford College men's tennis team plays in the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference Tournament Friday against the Mercer Bears at the Champions Club in Chattanooga, Tenn.
 
The Terriers (9-12, 3-4 SoCon) enter the postseason tournament as the fifth seed and play the four-seed Bears (10-15, 4-3 SoCon) at 8:30 a.m. Friday. Mercer won the regular-season meeting between the two teams 5-2 in Macon, Ga., March 12 in Wofford's first SoCon match of the season. This will be the second time the two programs have met in the SoCon Tournament, with Wofford winning the first postseason meeting between the two squads last season 4-3.
 
"Our team is excited to play Mercer in the first round of the tournament," Head Coach Rod Ray said. "Mercer is well-coached and their lineup is rock-solid. Earlier in the year they beat us by out playing us. We've overcome adversity this season and been forced to make an immense effort transforming ourselves into a tougher team. We aren't the same team we were a month ago and now look forward to demonstrating a strong resolve."
 
Wofford will feature a lineup that includes 2016 First-Team All-Conference selection Haris Poric at the number one singles position. Poric has a 13-7 singles record this season and went 4-3 in conference matches, starting the season with an 11-2 mark in singles. Poric defeated Mercer's Sam Philip 7-5, 6-2 in the match earlier this season at Mercer.
 
"Coming off a win against Furman really helped me finish the regular season strong," Poric said. "I've been pretty happy with my form. I've had a couple matches where I played hurt and I was happy to recover from that and get back to where I was earlier in the season."
 
The Terriers will also feature seniors Parks Thompson and David Sklar, freshman Kyle Barr, who earned All-Freshman team honors Tuesday; sophomore Parks Schoen and junior Andrew Graham in their singles lineup. Sklar has 10 singles wins this season. Schoen and Graham have each performed well in conference matches, with Schoen at 4-1 and Graham going 3-0 against SoCon opponents.
 
Wofford has adjusted its doubles pairings over the season, with the two seniors Thompson and Sklar now holding the one position while Poric and Graham play at the two spot and Barr and junior Trevor Gotkowski anchor the three position.
 
"I think the main thing going into the tournament is confidence for myself and the team," Poric said. "I feel like we've been working really hard this season, and we've improved from the first time we've played Mercer. I feel like we have a lot better chance of prevailing this time. We've all grown and matured. We've made some adjustments to our lineup, but I feel like every individual on the team is ready for the tournament."
 
Mercer will feature a 2016 Second-Team All-Conference performer in Fernando Guardia, who is 4-5 overall and 4-1 in conference at the number six singles position. Senior Anderson Scarpa has a team-best 11 singles victories this season, with an 11-9 record at the four position primarily. The doubles pairing of Arsav Mohanty and Ruben Vanoppen is a team-best 6-3 overall and 3-2 in conference matches.
 
"Last time against Mercer was pretty close," Poric said. "We had a few guys who went down real close [to winning] and, like I said, we've all grown since then. It's a different stage, so we're all going to be more motivated and pumped and experienced playing against them so I'm really looking forward to it this weekend."
 
Wofford defeated Mercer last season in the opening round of the SoCon Tournament to improve their record to 3-13 in the first round. The Terriers advanced to the semifinals for the second time in program history before ending their season with a 4-1 loss to Furman. The Terriers also appeared in the semifinals in the 2008 season.
 
The winner of the quarterfinal matchup will play the winner of the ETSU-The Citadel match in the semifinals Saturday at 10 a.m. All matches will take place at the Champions Club in Chattanooga, Tenn., with the championship final set for 1 p.m. Sunday.
 
All matches will be available to follow on live stats at www.soconsports.com.