The Georgia women claimed the top spot in dramatic fashion on Tuesday, as the Bulldogs defeated North Carolina, 4-3, in the closest of title matches to claim the ITA National Women's Team Indoor Championship at the University of Washington in Seattle. Georgia is this week's women's No. 1 in the Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis Top 25 Rankings, the first time the Bulldogs sit atop the poll in its three seasons.

 

Georgia sophomore Katarina Jokic clinched victory for the Dawgs, as each of the last two singles matches on went to third-set tiebreaks. After UNC junior Sara Daavettila (Williamston, Mich.) leveled the match at 3-all with a 3-6, 7-6, 7-6 victory over Marta Gonzalez, Jokic edged junior Makenna Jones (Greenville, S.C.), 6-7, 7-5, 7-6, to give Georgia its sixth national title in program history.

 

ADVERTISEMENT

On the men's side, Virginia's 5-2 toppling of previous No. 1 Wake Forest in Charlottesville shook up the Top 10 ahead of this weekend's ITA National Men's Team Indoor Championships in Champaign, Ill., Feb. 15-18. The Cavaliers' victory,  led by singles wins from freshmen Brandon Nakashima (San Diego) and Ryan Goetz (Greenlawn, N.Y.) and sophomore Gianni Ross (Chicago), lifted Virginia into the Top 10 and buoyed Ohio State back to No. 1 for the first time since Week 3 of 2018. On the West Coast, both Cal and Stanford bagged 4-3 wins over USC, with senior Sameer Kumar (Carmel, Ind.) clinching for the Cardinal, which rose to No. 8.

 

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. Therefore, the maximum number of points a team can receive is 300. First-place votes were not tallied.

 

The full list of voters participating in the 2019 rankings are: Casey Angle (former Intercollegiate Tennis Association Director of Championships); Jordan Bishop (The News Press; Stillwater, Okla.); Virgil Christian (USTA Collegiate Tennis); Richard Croome (The Eagle; Bryan, Texas); Sonny Dearth (Daily Press; Newport News, Va.); Granger Huntress (Texas College Tennis); David Fish (Universal Tennis Ratings); Andy Katz (NCAA.com); Bobby Knight (College Tennis Today); Brandon Moglen (Tennis Channel); Shannon Wrege (Tennis Recruiting Network); Michael Patrick (former University of Tennessee women’s head coach), Lisa Stone (Parenting Aces) and Caitlin Thompson (Racquet Magazine).

 

For more on the Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis Top 25, visit the USTA collegiate Top 25 homepage. 

 

Men's Poll

Rank (Last Week) – Points

1. (2) Ohio State – 300  

2. (4) Mississippi State – 280

3. (5) Florida – 271

4. (6) Texas – 264

5. (1) Wake Forest – 248

6. (7) UCLA – 239

7. (9) North Carolina – 223

8. (10) Stanford – 206

9. (14) Virginia – 203

10. (8) Baylor – 189

11. (3) USC – 176

12. (11) Illinois – 171

13. (12) Notre Dame – 161

14. (13) Columbia – 159

15. (15) TCU – 126

16. (16) Tennessee – 116

17. (17) Michigan – 104

18. (18) Florida State – 91

19. (22) Oklahoma – 72

20. (23) Alabama – 68

21. (21) Texas A&M – 46

22. (25) Minnesota – 36

23. (24) LSU – 33

24. (NR) South Carolina – 25

25. (19) NC State – 23

Receiving Votes: Oregon 12, Tulane 12, California 5, Texas Tech 4, Tulsa 1

Dropped Out: Tulane (20)

 

Women's Poll

Rank (Last Week) – Points

1. (4) Georgia – 300

2. (3) North Carolina – 288

3. (1) Stanford – 276

4. (2) Duke – 264

5. (5) UCLA – 246

6. (6) Vanderbilt – 241

7. (7) Pepperdine – 220

8. (9) Texas – 211

9. (8) South Carolina – 206

10. (T10) Michigan – 189

11. (13) Ohio State – 175

12. (14) Florida State – 152

13. (15) Kansas – 148

14. (16) Miami (Fla.) – 122

15. (17) Virginia – 115

16. (12) LSU – 114

17. (T10) NC State – 113

18. (18) Northwestern – 109

19. (24) Oklahoma – 66

20. (22) Florida – 50

21. (19) Oklahoma State – 48

22. (25) Boston College – 43

23. (23) Syracuse – 26

24. (21) Texas Tech – 23

25. (NR) Texas A&M – 21

Receiving Votes: Washington 20, USC 19, Wake Forest 11, Kentucky 7, Washington State 5, Auburn 1, California 1

Dropped Out: USC (20)

 

Previous Top 25 polls:

Feb. 6, 2019

Jan. 30, 2019

 

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. 11, 2019, with current college players in bold.

 

ATP

No. 9 John Isner (Georgia)

No. 34 Steve Johnson (USC)

No. 76 Tennys Sandgren (Tennessee)

No. 82 Mackenzie McDonald (UCLA)

No. 90 Bradley Klahn (Stanford)

No. 152 Noah Rubin (Wake Forest)

No. 166 Chris Eubanks (Georgia Tech)

No. 207 Marcos Giron (UCLA)

No. 266 JC Aragone (Virginia)

No. 267 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Virginia)

No. 286 JJ Wolf (Ohio State)

No. 293 Dennis Novikov (UCLA)

No. 294 Collin Altamirano (Virginia)

 

WTA

No. 23 Danielle Collins (Virginia)

No. 119 Jennifer Brady (UCLA)

No. 140 Nicole Gibbs (Stanford)

No. 154 Danielle Lao (USC)

No. 182 Francesca Di Lorenzo (Ohio State)

No. 198 Kristie Ahn (Stanford)

No. 222 Jamie Loeb (North Carolina)

No. 247 Robin Anderson (UCLA)

No. 299 Maria Mateas (Duke)

 

(Photo courtesy of the Ohio State University)