NCAA Tennis Championships I Pervolarakis Talks About His UP Career (Video) I Aaron Gross Preview (Video)

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – University of Portland senior Michail Pervolarakis will compete in singles as an individual qualifier at the upcoming 2018 NCAA Tennis Championships. Pervolarakis joins Travis Parrott (2002) as the only players in Pilot history to earn bids to the NCAA Championships.

The singles and doubles competition will be conducted May 23-28 at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, after the conclusion of the team championship, which runs from May 18-22. Wake Forest University will serve as host.

Pervolarakis will now attempt to match Parrott's All-American run to the 2002 NCAA Championships Round of 16.

"We have had a ton of very good players through the years," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said, "but only one other player has had as good of a season as Mike and qualified for NCAA's. Mike has lofty goals beyond college tennis, but one of his biggest goals in the end was to make the NCAA tournament. Knowing Mike as I do, I am sure he is not just happy to get an invitation. Mike has proven that he can beat anyone in the country on a given day. Obviously, everyone at this tournament is solid, but I know he is not going back there with the idea of anything other than competing hard and getting some wins."

A native of Limassol, Cyprus, Pervolarakis is No. 57 nationally in the final Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) singles rankings. He garnered his second consecutive West Coast Conference Player of the Year honor to become the first non-Pepperdine competitor in the league's history to win the honor twice.

Pervolarakis enters the tournament with a 25-6 overall singles record. He has performed well against top competition with four wins against ranked opponents and became the first Pilot to win the ITA Northwest Regional title in October.

His illustrious career includes being the first Pilot in history to earn WCC Player of the Year honors and to garner three All-WCC First Team singles honors. He earned honorable mention accolades as a freshman before landing on the first team each of the last three seasons.

"We have been just a few points away from making the tournament as a team the last couple of years," Gross added. "Barely missing those opportunities are not rectified by Mike making the tournament, but I know all of our guys will be ecstatic that he is there representing us."

The singles draw has not yet posted, but fans can follow the action and get updated brackets, real-time scoring and live video coverage of the tournament by visiting the tournament home page at WakeForestSports.com.