Bahamian collegiate tennis player Jerald Carroll entered his freshman season as the youngest player in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men’s tennis, but he did not let that stop him from making an impact for the University of Louisville Cardinals.
The Cardinals ended the 2025-26 NCAA Division I men’s tennis season with an overall win/loss record of 17-13. They finished with a 5-8 record in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).
At 17, Carroll spoke about his experience on the collegiate circuit in his freshman season.
“It was great,” the collegiate tennis player said. “It was a lot of new things, a lot of new adjustments and a lot of new surroundings, but once I adjusted and I settled in, it was really good. We had a solid season and everyone had a good impact. Overall, it was a great season for freshman year.”
The Cards’ season came to an anticlimactic end against the 13th-seeded Florida State University (FSU) Seminoles in the 2026 ACC Men’s Tennis Championships last month.
Louisville fell 4-1 to Florida State to close out the season.
In Carroll’s final singles matchup, he took on Gabor Hornung.
The Bahamian tennis ace lost 4-6 in the first set before recovering to win 6-2 in the second. The third set stood at 2-1 in favor of Hornung before the match was called.
Carroll ended his freshman campaign with a 7-8 singles record and a 5-1 doubles record.
While there was a learning curve during his first season, the goal is to continue to improve moving forward, he said.
“I feel like the physicality is a lot different – a huge difference [than what I’m accustomed to],” Carroll admitted. “I’m playing guys who are pushing 30 [years old], so the physicality is on a completely different level. The intensity and the energy in college tennis is so much different than the normal tennis pace. It’s a lot louder and it’s a lot more energetic. It’s a lot, but a good lot. It’s super fun and it’s super exciting. I’m just more than excited to come back next year and hopefully, do even better.”
Carroll capped off the season as the first Cardinals’ player to earn a 6-0 and 6-0 victory this season, accomplishing the feat against Alex Adamec of Tennessee State University.
The freshman also appeared in all but one ACC singles faceoff for Louisville this season.
Carroll will have a busy offseason, working on his craft. He plans to compete in two tournaments in Los Angeles, California, in the coming weeks before representing The Bahamas at the 2026 Davis Cup Tournament (Americas Group III) this summer.
In addition, Carroll will return to Louisville, Kentucky, to compete in the M25 Louisville Tennis Tournament, scheduled for July 13-19.
