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Inside Furman is published monthly during the school year by the Furman University Department of Marketing and Public Relations. For story ideas, e-mail John Roberts, editor.
Scarpa earns 700th win
Furman men's tennis coach Paul Scarpa became only the fourth college tennis head coach to reach 700 wins with the Paladins' 4-1 victory over East Tennessee State University April 22 in the Southern Conference tennis tournament championship.
The win sends Scarpa, a Charleston native, and his Paladins to the NCAA team tournament for the first time in the coach's long tenure at Furman. Scarpa joins Hawaii's Jim Scwhitters, Stanford's Dick Gould, and Georgia's Dan McGill in the 700 win club. He is currently the third-winningest active coach in the NCAA's behind Schwitters and Gould, and recently passed Texas' Dave Snyder to move into fourth place on the all-time wins list.
He is in his 35th year at Furman and 38th season overall. His overall record stands at 700-422, and he has registered a 664-403 mark at Furman. Scarpa spent his first three seasons as head coach at Florida State and Navy.
This is one of Scarpa's most successful seasons, as he has guided the Paladins (19-9, 9-1 Southern Conference) to a No. 61 national ranking, a win over ACC foe and No. 26 ranked North Carolina, the Southern Conference regular season and tournament championships.
The Paladins will face number two ranked University of Georgia in the first round of the tournament May 13 in Athens.
Scarpa has been inducted into the South Carolina Tennis and Furman Athletic Halls-of-Fame and has been named Southern Conference coach-of-the-year six times as he has coached 108 All-Southern Conference players.