ST. PAUL, Minn. – The fifth-seeded St. Olaf College men's tennis team will take on fourth-seeded Macalester College in the quarterfinals of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Playoffs on Wednesday afternoon.

After securing its first playoff spot since 2015, St. Olaf (6-11, 4-5 MIAC) will visit Macalester (8-10, 5-4 MIAC) in the tournament's lone quarterfinal on Wednesday, May 1 at 4:30 p.m. at Macalester's Hayden Courts. The meeting will be the second match between the two programs in four days after the two teams played on the final day of the regular season on Sunday.

The match will be streamed live with cameras on each court on the MIAC Sports Network, courtesy of Macalester. Scores will also be recorded on the iOnCourt app here.

The winner of Wednesday's match will advance to take on top-seeded and MIAC regular-season champion Gustavus Adolphus College in the semifinals on Friday, May 3 at 3:30 p.m. in St. Peter. The other semifinal on Friday will see the third-seeded College of St. Scholastica visit second-seeded Carleton College in a 4 p.m. start in Northfield. The championship match will be played at the site of the highest remaining seed on Saturday, May 4.

St. Olaf clinched its spot in the five-team field with a 4-5 mark in conference play, qualifying for the tournament on a tiebreaker ahead of Saint John's University and Bethel University by virtue of head-to-head wins over the Johnnies and Royals. Wednesday will mark the Oles' ninth appearance in the MIAC Playoffs, which date back to 2007, and St. Olaf is 6-8 all-time in the tournament. St. Olaf previous appeared in the MIAC Playoffs in eight consecutive seasons from 2008-15.

This year marks the eighth time the Oles will appear in the quarterfinal round. St. Olaf is 4-3 in its previous seven quarterfinals, posting wins in 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2014 under the previous six-team format. The Oles have appeared in the championship match twice, falling 8-1 to top-seeded Gustavus in both 2009 and 2014.

Macalester is in the MIAC Playoffs for the 10th time since 2007 and has qualified for the tournament in each of the last six seasons the tournament has been held (no MIAC Playoffs in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic). The Scots are 3-9 in their previous nine appearances after winning their quarterfinal matches in 2010, 2018, and 2021. Macalester has appeared in the semifinals in each of the last three editions of the MIAC Playoffs.

Wednesday's match will be the first meeting between the Oles and Scots in the MIAC Men's Tennis Playoffs. St. Olaf holds a 45-19 advantage in the all-time series between the two programs, although Macalester has won the regular-season meeting in each of the last eight seasons. In Sunday's regular-season finale, the Scots used two doubles wins and a singles split to edge the Oles by a 5-4 margin. Sophomore Bogdan Vizoli and sophomore Marjan Veldic provided three of St. Olaf's four points with a No. 1 doubles victory and wins at the top-two singles spots.