Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis Top 25: April 21, 2021

ORLANDO, Fla. – With five conference championship tournaments featuring Top 25 teams taking place this week, time will soon tell whether schools such as North Carolina, Texas, Ohio State and Baylor will keep their footing in both the men's and women's Top 10 heading into the NCAA Championship. 

 

Click each link below to follow this week's conference championships featuring Top 25 teams:

 

SEC — Men's— April 19-23, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

SEC — Women's — April 19-23, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

ACC — Men's | Women's — April 21-25, Rome Tennis Center, Rome, Ga.

American — Men's | Women's — April 22-25, USTA National Campus, Orlando, Fla.

Big 12 — Men's and Women's — April 22-26, Baylor University, Waco, Texas

Pac-12 — Men's and Women's  — April 23-26, Barnes Tennis Center, San Diego

 

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 15 voters, making the maximum number of points available 325.

 

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 Championships, which will be held at the USTA National Campus.

 

Men

Rank (Last Week's Ranking) – Points

1. (1) Florida – 325

2. (3) Virginia – 308

3. (4) North Carolina – 297

4. (2) Baylor – 276

5. (6) Texas – 272

6. (5) Tennessee – 266

7. (8) Ohio State – 243

8. (10) Illinois – 225

9. (9) TCU – 220

10. (7) Michigan – 213

11. (11) Wake Forest – 196

12. (12) UCF – 186

13. (13) Georgia – 172

14. (14) Texas A&M – 159

15. (15) USC – 148

16. (17) Kentucky – 126

17. (18) South Carolina – 103

18. (16) Stanford – 97

19. (21) Arizona – 89

20. (20) Mississippi – 83

21. (19) UCLA – 74

22. (22) Mississippi State – 42

23. (NR) Pepperdine – 21

24. (24) NC State – 18

25. (NR) Oregon – 14

Receiving Votes: Tulane 12, Arizona State 9, Alabama 6, LSU 1, Oklahoma State 1

Dropped Out: Alabama (23), Arizona State (25)

 

Women

Rank (Last Week's Ranking) – Points

1. (1) North Carolina – 325

2. (2) Texas – 312

3. (3) Georgia – 299

4. (4) UCLA – 286

5. (5) Pepperdine – 273

6. (7) Ohio State – 251

7. (9) Michigan – 232

8. (8) NC State – 228

9. (6) Florida State – 222

10. (12) Baylor – 196

11. (11) Virginia – 193

12. (14) UCF – 189

13. (13) Duke – 173

14. (10) Northwestern – 165

15. (15) Stanford – 145

16. (17) Florida – 126

17. (21) Texas A&M – 98

18. (T18) LSU – 97

19. (T18) Georgia Tech – 91

20. (16) California – 86

21. (20) Tennessee – 73

22. (22) Miami (Fla.) – 65

23. (23) Oklahoma – 56

24. (24) Mississippi – 12

25. (25) Auburn – 11

Receiving Votes: Kentucky 6, Vanderbilt 4, Arizona State 1, Rice 1, Texas Tech 1

Dropped Out: None

 

Around College Tennis

 

Division I

• Conference tournaments kicked off last week, with the first automatic bids into the NCAA tournament awarded.
• Women's conference champions so far include: Alabama State (SWAC), Charleston Southern (Big South), LIU Brooklyn (Northeast) and Georgia Southern (Sun Belt).
• For the men, automatic berths have been handed out to Alabama A&M (SWAC), Presbyterian (Big South) and Fairleigh Dickinson (Northeast).

Division II

• The NCAA Division II Championships Committee named the regional sites for this year's event. Women's host sites will be: Midwestern State, West Florida, North Georgia and the Pacific West Conference. The men's sites are: Charleston, Central Oklahoma, Queens (NY) and Northwood.

Division III

• One of the biggest regular season matches of the year took place in Connecticut over the weekend, where 2019 NCAA women's champion Wesleyan defeated 2019 NCAA semifinalist Middlebury, 7-2. The Cardinals are now 4-0, with three wins against ranked teams.