Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis Top 25: April 28, 2021

ORLANDO, Fla. – The busiest week of conference championship season is fully reflected in this week's Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis Top 25 rankings—Pac-12 women's champion Cal jumped from No. 20 to No. 13 and the ACC champion Virginia men returned to No. 1 for the first time since 2017.

 

With another week left to determine automatic bids into the NCAA Division I team championships, a full list of the automatic qualifiers thus far:

 

Men: Alabama A&M (SWAC), Baylor (Big 12), Belmont (Ohio Valley), DePaul (Big East), East Tennessee State (Southern), Fairleigh Dickinson (Northeast), Liberty (Atlantic Sun), Middle Tennessee (C-USA), Monmouth (MAAC), Navy (Patriot), New Mexico (Mountain West), Pepperdine (WCC), Presbyterian (Big South), South Alabama (Sun Belt), South Carolina State (MEAC), Tennessee (SEC), UCF (AAC), USC (Pac-12), Virginia (ACC), Western Michigan (MAC).

 

Women: Alabama State (SWAC), Austin Peay (Ohio Valley), Ball State (MAC), California (Pac-12), Charleston Southern (Big South), Drake (Missouri Valley), Furman (Southern), Georgia (SEC), Georgia Southern (Sun Belt), James Madison (CAA), LIU Brooklyn (Northeast), North Carolina (ACC), North Florida (Atlantic Sun), Old Dominion (C-USA), Pepperdine (WCC), San Jose State (Mountain West), Siena (MAAC), South Carolina State (MEAC), UCF (AAC), Xavier (Big East).

 

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. (2) Virginia – 320

2. (1) Florida – 302

3. (4) Baylor – 292

4. (6) Tennessee – 290

5. (3) North Carolina – 282

6. (5) Texas – 263

7. (7) Ohio State – 239

8. (8) Illinois – 231

9. (9) TCU – 217

T10. (10) Michigan – 199

T10. (12) UCF – 199

12. (11) Wake Forest – 196

13. (15) USC – 169

14. (14) Texas A&M – 156

15. (17) South Carolina – 133

16. (13) Georgia – 131

17. (16) Kentucky – 111

18. (19) Arizona – 90

19. (NR) Arizona State – 88

20. (18) Stanford – 85

21. (20) Mississippi – 73

22. (21) UCLA – 52

23. (22) Mississippi State – 44

24. (23) Pepperdine – 27

25. (24) NC State – 14

Receiving Votes: Oregon 4, Georgia Tech 3, Oklahoma State 2, Texas Tech 2, Western Michigan 1

Dropped Out: Oregon (25)

 

Women

Rank (Last Week's Ranking) – Points

1. (1) North Carolina – 325

2. (2) Texas – 312

3. (3) Georgia – 299

4. (4) UCLA – 280

5. (5) Pepperdine – 276

6. (6) Ohio State – 249

7. (7) Michigan – 239

8. (10) Baylor – 204

9. (12) UCF – 203

10. (11) Virginia – 202

11. (8) NC State – 197

12. (9) Florida State – 181

13. (20) California – 170

14. (13) Duke – 162

15. (19) Georgia Tech – 148

16. (14) Northwestern – 133

17. (17) Texas A&M – 129

18. (15) Stanford – 100

19. (21) Tennessee – 96

20. (16) Florida – 86

21. (22) Miami (Fla.) – 73

22. (23) Oklahoma – 58

23. (18) LSU – 55

24. (NR) Kentucky – 16

25. (25) Auburn – 14

Receiving Votes: South Carolina 12, Arizona State 6, Mississippi 6, Furman 5, Old Dominion 3, Florida International 1

Dropped Out: Mississippi (24)

 

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

 

Around College Tennis

 

NCAA Division I

• Here’s a full list of current women’s automatic qualifiers into the NCAA Championships: Alabama State (SWAC), Austin Peay (Ohio Valley), Ball State (MAC), California (Pac-12), Charleston Southern (Big South), Drake (Missouri Valley), Furman (Southern), Georgia (SEC), Georgia Southern (Sun Belt), James Madison (CAA), LIU Brooklyn (Northeast), North Carolina (ACC), North Florida (Atlantic Sun), Old Dominion (C-USA), Pepperdine (WCC), San Jose State (Mountain West), Siena (MAAC), South Carolina State (MEAC), UCF (AAC).

• Here’s a full list of current men’s automatic qualifiers into the NCAA Championships: Alabama A&M (SWAC), Baylor (Big 12), Belmont (Ohio Valley), East Tennessee State (Southern), Fairleigh Dickinson (Northeast), Liberty (Atlantic Sun), Middle Tennessee (C-USA), Monmouth (MAAC), Navy (Patriot), New Mexico (Mountain West), Pepperdine (WCC), Presbyterian (Big South), South Alabama (Sun Belt), South Carolina State (MEAC), Tennessee (SEC), UCF (AAC), USC (Pac-12), Virginia (ACC), Western Michigan (MAC).

 

NCAA Division II (notes courtesy of school recaps)

• The Barry women delivered its 12th Sunshine State Conference championship last week by defeating Nova Southeastern, marking the most titles in league history. Conversely, West Alabama ended West Florida’s streak of nine-consecutive Gulf South Conference titles to win both the regular season and tournament championship in the same season for the first time in program history.
• Among the top men’s programs, familiar names claimed conference titles last week. Barry won its eighth Sunshine State Conference title in the last nine years by topping Saint Leo, and Valdosta State got past West Florida for its third-straight Gulf South Conference crown.
  

 

NCAA Division III

• Although the Division III schedule has been shortened, the Wesleyan (Conn.) women sit at 4-0 with two key wins over Middlebury and Amherst. Those two programs met on April 24 in a rematch of the 2019 NCAA quarterfinals, with Middlebury surviving Amherst both in 2019 and again in 2021.
  
• Washington-St. Louis men’s tennis had a dominant April, winning all seven matches including five of them by 9-0 decisions.
  

 

NAIA (notes courtesy of school recaps)

• No. 3 Xavier University of Louisiana women earned its first official conference tournament title since 2010 when it knocked off No. 8 William Carey in the Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament.
  
• The 2021 Appalachian Athletic Conference men’s tournament trophy went to Tennessee Wesleyan for the first time in school history. The Bulldogs were ranked No. 6 in the NAIA ratings, and defeated No. 3 Reinhardt in the finals.
  

 

Pictured at top: Ryan Goetz, UVA junior

Photo courtesy of the Universty of Virginia