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Tennis Channel/USTA College Top 25: Feb. 12, 2020

Pat Mitsch & Arthur Kapetanakis | February 12, 2020


Three ranking points are all that separated North Carolina from reigning supreme in both the men's and women's Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis Top 25 this week.

 

Instead, the Tar Heels will have to settle for a No. 1 and a No. 2, as the women's team tops the polls after the men's team featured at No. 1 a week ago.

 

It's become an annual tradition to see UNC at No. 1 in the women's poll, as the Tar Heels have been ranked No. 1 in each of the last three seasons. This time, it comes after UNC won its fourth ITA Team National Indoor Championship in Chicago, led by seniors Alexa Graham (Garden City, N.Y.), who clinched the Heels' title victory over UCLA, and Sara Daavettila (Williamston, Mich.), who was named the ITA's National Player of the Week.

 

"We were all just really excited because it's a huge tournament, and it's something we've always done well at," Graham (pictured above) told USTA.com. "To win it is just really special."

 

Graham and Daavettila, alongside fellow senior Makenna Jones (Greenville, S.C.), now have two ITA Indoor titles on their resumes, adding to their 2018 triumph in Madison, Wisc. That year, the Tar Heels went on to enter the NCAA tournament as the No. 2 seed, but were upset by eventual champions Stanford in the Round of 16. After an NCAA semifinal run in 2019, the veteran trio are poised to lead their team to even greater success in their fourth and final year on the court together.  

 

"We're celebrating it, we're excited," said Graham, "but by the time we get back to practice, we've got to move on and look forward. It was a great win, I think it gave us some confidence, gave us momentum. But it's not something that we're going to really dwell on and think that we ever have a tournament or a match in the bag.

 

"We know if we don't work hard, any team can pick us off. Every team is good, and I feel like every match we played this weekeend, it's just a few shots, a few points that made the difference. If we start thinking that we're the No. 1 team, then next week we won't be."

 

The state of North Carolina, meanwhile, is the home of three of the Top 5 women's programs, with Duke at No. 4 and NC State making the jump from No. 9 to No. 5.

 

The Ohio State men unseated the Tar Heels at No. 1 on the men's side, thanks in large part to a 4-2 home victory over USC, with singles victories from Kyle Seelig (Hatfield, Pa.), Cannon Kingsley (Northport, N.Y.) and John McNally (Cincinnati), who beat Brandon Holt (Rolling Hills, Calif.) at No. 1 singles. 

 

On Saturday, Feb. 15, the USC women will take on Notre Dame in the next College MatchDay at the USTA National Campus in Orlando at 5 p.m. The match will air live on Tennis Channel Plus and on Tennis Channel on Sunday, Feb. 16, at 6 p.m. ET.

 

Each team's point total, specified below, is the sum of its ranking points from the USTA's panel of 14 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. The maximum points a team can earn this week is 300.

 

The weekly rankings will rate the Top 25 men’s and women’s teams in NCAA Division I and will be released each Wednesday on Tennis Channel’s and the USTA’s platforms, including the USTA’s new Top 25 homepage, through the conclusion of the NCAA Championship.

 

The full voting panel includes: Casey Angle (former Intercollegiate Tennis Association Director of Championships); Jordan Bishop (The News Press; Stillwater, Okla.); Virgil Christian (USTA); Richard Croome (The Eagle; Bryan, Texas); Sonny Dearth (Daily Press; Newport News, Va.); Judy Dixon (former UMass women’s head coach); David Fish (Universal Tennis Ratings); Granger Huntress (Texas College Tennis); Andy Katz (NCAA.com); Bobby Knight (College Tennis Today); Brandon Moglen (Tennis Channel); Peter Smith (former USC men’s head coach); Lisa Stone (Parenting Aces); and Caitlin Thompson (Racquet Magazine).

 

Men

Rank (Last Week) – Points

1. (2) Ohio State – 295  

2. (1) North Carolina – 292

3. (3) Texas – 268

4. (4) Florida – 263

5. (5) USC – 251

6. (7) Texas A&M – 231

7. (9) Baylor – 219

8. (6) Wake Forest – 213

9. (10) Stanford – 197

10. (11) NC State – 196

11. (14) Michigan – 167

12. (8) Columbia – 166

13. (12) Tennessee – 165

14. (16) South Carolina – 137

15. (15) Georgia – 132

16. (18) California – 111

17. (17) UCLA – 109

18. (13) TCU – 86

T19. (21) Duke – 76

T19. (20) UCF – 76

21. (22) Florida State – 59

22. (23) Mississippi – 56

23. (24) Oklahoma – 32

24. (NR) Virginia – 16

25. (NR) Harvard – 15

Receiving Votes: Oklahoma State 11, Dartmouth 9, Arizona 8, Illinois 2, Texas Tech2, Kentucky 1, Middle Tennessee State 1

Dropped Out: Mississippi State (19), Kentucky (25)

 

Women

Rank (Last Week) – Points

1. (3) North Carolina – 300

2. (4) UCLA – 288

3. (1) Stanford – 275

4. (8) Duke – 249

5. (9) NC State – 240

6. (2) Georgia – 235

7. (10) Florida State – 233

8. (6) Texas – 231

9. (T13) Princeton – 189

10. (5) Pepperdine – 180

11. (7) Ohio State – 178

12. (11) Virginia – 157

13. (12) Michigan – 151

14. (15) Oklahoma State – 129

15. (T13) UCF – 122

16. (17) Vanderbilt – 104

17. (23) Georgia Tech – 90

18. (18) South Carolina – 89

19. (19) California – 88

20. (20) USC – 85

21. (16) Arizona State – 83

22. (T21) Tennessee – 77

23. (T21) Texas A&M – 35

24. (24) Washington – 29

25. (25) Wake Forest – 19

Receiving Votes: Florida 6, Old Dominion 4, Baylor 2

Dropped Out: None

 

Note: The ITA men's and women's Top 25 polls are available here.

 

In addition to the polls above, each week this space will highlight the former and current American collegians in the ATP's and WTA's Top 300. The below reflects the rankings released on Feb. 4, 2020, with current college players in bold.

 

ATP

No. 18 John Isner (Georgia)

No. 53 Tennys Sandgren (Tennessee)

No. 75 Steve Johnson (USC)

No. 113 Marcos Giron (UCLA)

No. 123 Bradley Klahn (Stanford)

No. 160 Mackenzie McDonald (UCLA)

No. 169 JJ Wolf (Ohio State)

No. 183 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Virginia)

No. 207 Chris Eubanks (Georgia Tech)

No. 258 Maxime Cressy (UCLA)

No. 261 JC Aragone (Virginia)

No. 269 Noah Rubin (Wake Forest)

No. 273 Jenson Brooksby (Baylor)

No. 295 Brandon Nakashima (Virginia)

 

WTA

No. 50 Danielle Collins (Virginia)

No. 52 Jennifer Brady (UCLA)

No. 97 Kristie Ahn (Stanford)

No. 120 Francesca Di Lorenzo (Ohio State)

No. 127 Nicole Gibbs (Stanford)

No. 180 Robin Anderson (UCLA)

No. 196 Danielle Lao (USC)

No. 256 Catherine Harrison (UCLA)

No. 279 Jamie Loeb (UNC)

 

(Photo courtesy of the University of North Carolina)

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