Trey Mallory and his University of North Carolina at Wilmington team-mates booked their place to the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship after retaining their conference title at the weekend.

The second seeds beat fourth seeds Elon University 4-2 in the final on the latter’s court at the Jimmy Powell Tennis Centre on Sunday to clinch a second successive Colonial Athletic Association men’s title and with it automatic qualification for the national championship.

Freshman Mallory played his part as he won his singles match against Ben Zipay, 6-4, 6-2.

He then teamed up with Gabriel Hurtado to win the doubles match against Nick Campbell and Nicholas Condos, 6-2.

“It feels great winning my first Conference NCAA Division 1 Championship and qualifying for the 2022 NCAA Finals,” Mallory told The Royal Gazette.

“At our team dinner the night of winning our coach Mait DuBois said it’s almost unheard of to win a conference championship with a freshman. Our team had two, so as a young team we will be playing with each other for at least three more years.

“UNCW has an international team consisting of players from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Italy, Spain, Holland, Belgium, USA and of course now Bermuda.”

Mallory and his team-mates had their work cut out heading in to the conference championship.

“Going into the conference tournament I knew it was going to be a tough event as only the top schools in the conference qualify,” he added.

“In the final against Elon the atmosphere was electric with Elon University having home court advantage and having hundreds of spectators cheering for them.

“But with the help of my team-mates and family on the sidelines rooting for me and the team we were able to defeat Elon and silence the crowd.”

The 20-year-old has enjoyed considerable success in his debut season in NCAA Division 1 tennis having also won the singles title at the Bulldog Invitational at the University of Georgia last September.

“It’s been a great year for me as a freshman,” Mallory said. “My team-mates made me feel welcomed and the camaraderie we have on and off the court helped me to adapt to college life.”

The promising player is reaping the benefits of the hard work he put in during the preseason in preparation for competing at the college level in the United States.

“The preseason training with coach Mait Dubois and Taylor Vaughn also helped prepare me for the hectic tennis season that still continues,” Mallory added.

The University of Illinois will host the NCAA Tennis Championship from May 19 to 28.