The men's team from Virginia and the women's team from Florida have been voted No. 1 in the inaugural USTA College Tennis Top 25 team rankings, a new weekly poll of a panel of college tennis experts that will be released each Wednesday through the conclusion of the NCAA Division I college season in May.

 

The reigning NCAA champion Cavaliers are 3-0 and opened their ACC schedule with a 7-0 victory at Louisville Sunday behind singles victories from Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, J.C. Aragone and Alexander Ritschard.

 

The 3-0 Gators used singles victories from Josie Kuhlman, Brooke Austin and Kourtney Keegan to earn a 5-2 victory at Pepperdine last Thursday – coach Roland Thornqvist's 450th career win.

 

Each team's point total, specified below in parenthesis, is the sum of its ranking points from the USTA's panel of eight voters (listed below). ADVERTISEMENT Each voter ranked 25 teams from Nos. 1 to 25, with the first-place team receiving 25 points and the last-place team receiving one. For control, the highest and lowest outlying ranking for each team on the ballot was removed. Therefore, the maximum number of points a team can receive is 150. First-place votes were not tallied.

 

A number of these programs will be featured live on ESPN3 through WatchESPN and the ESPN app this season as part of the College MatchDay series. The next College MatchDay will feature a rematch of the 2016 NCAA women's championship – Stanford vs. Oklahoma State – at 6 p.m. ET on Friday, Feb. 17, from the USTA National Campus at Lake Nona in Orlando.

 

Week 1 of the USTA College Tennis Top 25 team rankings are as follows:
 

USTA College Top 25 - Men
1. Virginia (146)
2. Ohio State (140)
T3. Wake Forest (135)
T3. Florida (135)
5. California (114)
6. USC (112)
7. UCLA (110)
T8. North Carolina (108)
T8. Northwestern (108)
10. Georgia (94)
11. Oklahoma State (87)
12. Oklahoma (86)
13. Baylor (69)
14. Kentucky (68)
15. Texas (64)
16. Mississippi State (54)
T17. Georgia Tech (43)
T17. Illinois (43)
19. Michigan (42)
20. Columbia (22)
21. Texas A&M (18)
22. Stanford (17)
23. Vanderbilt (16)
24. Old Dominion (15)
25. SMU (12)

 

* Men's teams receiving votes: TCU (9), Tulane (9), Ole Miss (7), South Carolina (1).

 

USTA College Top 25 - Women

1. Florida (149)

2. North Carolina (143)

3. Stanford (129)

4. Pepperdine (128)

T5. Ohio State (126)

T5. Oklahoma State (126)

7. Georgia (116)

8. California (105)

9. Vanderbilt (99)

10. Georgia Tech (93)

11. Duke (90)

12. Michigan (82)

13. Auburn (71)

14. Texas Tech (64)

15. Ole Miss (58)

16. UCLA (47)

17. Arizona State (46)

18. Texas A&M (45)

T19. Miami (Fla.) (36)

T19. USC (36)

21. Texas (31)

22. Northwestern (20)

23. South Carolina (18)

24. LSU (14)

25. Mississippi State (8)

** Women's teams receiving votes: Tulsa (6), Rice (5), TCU (4), Wake Forest (2), Florida State (1), Kentucky (1).

 

Voting Panel: Casey Angle (former ITA championships director); Virgil Christian (USTA College Tennis); Granger Huntress (Texas College Tennis); Bobby Knight (College Tennis Today); Dallas Oliver (Tennis Recruiting Network); Mike Patrick (former University of Tennessee women’s coach); Lisa Stone (Parenting Aces); and Bruce Waschuk (Universal Tennis Rating).

(Photo courtesy of University of Florida)