Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis Top 25: April 14, 2021

ORLANDO, Fla. – A team from North Carolina has emerged as a top ACC men's title contender alongside Virginia—Wake Forest.

 

The Demon Deacons made their loudest statement this season with a weekend road sweep of former No. 1 North Carolina, 5-2, and Duke, 4-0, climbing to No. 11 in this week's poll and to a close second behind the third-ranked Cavaliers in the ACC standings. This weekend's matches will determine the regular-season champion, with Virginia -- currently 10-0 in the ACC and with the head-to-head victory -- taking on Notre Dame (Friday) and Louisville (Sunday) on the road. Wake Forest's (10-1) only remaining conference match is at N.C. State on Saturday.

 

A familiar title race is also playing out in the women's Big Ten, with No. 7 Ohio State and No. 9 Michigan—a 4-3 winner over former No. 9 Northwestern on Sunday—tied at 14-1 in the conference ahead of their regular season finales this weekend. Unfortunately, they do not play each other—they already split the pair of meetings this season. Ohio State will play Penn State at home on Saturday and Michigan will host Michigan State on Sunday.

 

Each team's point total, specified below, is the sum of its ranking points from the USTA's panel of voters (listed below). 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. First-place votes were not tallied. This week's poll includes 14 voters, making the maximum number of points available 300.

 

The voting panel includes: Casey Angle, former ITA Director of Championships; Virgil Christian, former USTA Director of College Tennis; Richard Croome, former sports journalist; Sonny Dearth, sports journalist for the Daily Press (Va.) and Virginian-Pilot; Judy Dixon, former UMass head coach; Alex Gruskin, Cracked Racquets; J. Webb Horton, former FGCU head coach; Granger Huntress, Texas College Tennis; Bobby Knight, College Tennis Today; Brandon Moglen, Tennis Channel; Michael Patrick, former Tennessee head coach; Lisa Stone, Parenting Aces; Caitlin Thompson, Racquet Magazine; Scott Treibly, USTA; Shannon Wrege/Dallas Oliver, Tennis Recruiting Network.

 

The rankings will be released each Wednesday on Tennis Channel’s and the USTA’s platforms, including the USTA’s Top 25 homepage, through the conclusion of the 2021 NCAA Championship, which will be held at the USTA National Campus.

 

Men

Rank (Last Week's Ranking) – Points

1. (1) Florida – 300

2. (3) Baylor – 282

3. (4) Virginia – 273

4. (2) North Carolina – 265

5. (5) Tennessee – 247

6. (6) Texas – 233

7. (7) Michigan – 212

8. (8) Ohio State – 211

9. (9) TCU – 208

10. (10) Illinois – 206

11. (14) Wake Forest – 180

12. (13) UCF – 164

13. (15) Georgia – 161

14. (11) Texas A&M – 140

15. (12) USC – 131

16. (21) Stanford – 129

17. (19) Kentucky – 107

18. (16) South Carolina – 103

19. (18) UCLA – 78

20. (20) Mississippi – 58

21. (17) Arizona – 53

22. (22) Mississippi State – 48

23. (24) Alabama – 42

24. (23) NC State – 36

25. (25) Arizona State – 25

Receiving Votes: Pepperdine 8, Tulane 4

Dropped Out: None

 

Women

Rank (Last Week's Ranking) – Points

1. (1) North Carolina – 300

2. (2) Texas – 288

3. (3) Georgia – 276

4. (4) UCLA – 262

5. (5) Pepperdine – 253

6. (6) Florida State – 239

7. (7) Ohio State – 222

8. (8) NC State – 215

9. (10) Michigan – 208

10. (9) Northwestern – 189

11. (11) Virginia – 173

12. (12) Baylor – 169

13. (13) Duke – 160

14. (15) UCF – 133

15. (14) Stanford – 129

16. (16) California – 102

17. (18) Florida – 101

T18. (17) Georgia Tech – 93

T18. (19) LSU – 93

20. (20) Tennessee – 82

21. (22) Texas A&M – 59

22. (21) Miami (Fla.) – 58

23. (24) Oklahoma – 31

24. (NR) Mississippi – 20

25. (23) Auburn – 19

Receiving Votes: Kentucky 3, Vanderbilt 3, Arizona State 2, Texas Tech 2

Dropped Out: Vanderbilt (25)

 

Note: The Oracle/ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings are available at wearecollegetennis.com.

 

 

Around College Tennis

NCAA Division II

• The ITA released its first singles and doubles rankings of the year on April 8. The No. 1 University of Indianapolis women has two players in the top 10, led by No. 1 Nikol Alekseeva who also boasts the top ranking in doubles with partner Anna Novikova.
• For the men, Azusa Pacific also placed two players in the top 10, while Barry’s Alessandro Giuliato captured the No. 1 spot. In doubles, it was Valdosta State checking in with the No. 1 doubles team in the country in Yohan Nguyen and Florian Simbozel.

NJCAA

• The Tyler men and women were both No. 1 in the ITA NJCAA rankings in March. The men are coming off back-to-back NJCAA Division I titles, and are undefeated this year at 12-0. This year’s championships take place May 17-21 in Plano, Texas.
  
• The Tyler women are 13-1 after placing in a tie for second in the 2019 championships. This year’s postseason will be held in Mesa, Ariz., from May 1-5.
  
• Due to COVID, the 2021 NJCAA Division III men’s and women’s championships have been cancelled.
  

 

Above photo courtesy of Wake Forest Athletics