North Carolina high school tennis players will face a new path to regional competition this season as the state moves away from conference-based berths in favor of pre-regional qualifying events.
The Individual Regional Tournaments will maintain their traditional 16-entry draws in singles and doubles, but the method for determining which players advance has changed. Previously, berths were distributed to conferences. Now players must earn their spots through pre-regional competition.
The pre-regional system offers three routes to the regional tournament: automatic qualification for schools in regions with eight or fewer tennis programs, receiving a high enough seed to earn a bye or winning a pre-regional match.
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Regions with nine or more tennis programs have been divided into two pre-regional pools based primarily on geography and conference assignment. The number of regional berths each pool receives depends on how many schools field tennis teams in each pool, with allocations determined by a berth chart.
Polk County players will compete in the 3A West Pre-Regional on Tuesday at Shelby High School. All matches follow the state individual tournament format of best two-of-three sets with the third set played in full.
Schools set to send players to Shelby include Bessemer City, Lincolnton, Shelby, West Lincoln, Chase, East Rutherford, Hendersonville and Polk County.
