The song remains the same for the men’s and women’s Top 5 in the Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis Top 25, with the men’s No. 1 spot again going to California—the University of Southern California, that is—to borrow another Led Zeppelin song title.

 

In line with the unchanged Top 5, there was no major movement throughout the poll, with the bulk of teams holding steady in the fifth edition of 2020.

 

The North Carolina women backed up their No. 1 ranking—which they now hold for the third straight week—with a comeback, 4-3 victory against No. 6 Florida State. After taking the doubles point, the Tar Heels found themselves behind, 3-2, before a pair of underclasswomen stepped up to finish the job. 

 

Sophomore Cameron Morra (Rockville, Md.) and freshman Elizabeth Scott (Annapolis, Md.) won a pair of decisive third sets, at No. ADVERTISEMENT 2 and No. 3 singles, respectively, with Morra coming from a break down to win hers in a tiebreak. Scott clinched the match soon after, earning the Tar Heels the win despite missing standout senior Sara Daavettila (Williamston, Mich.) for singles play.

 

“It was a matter of, literally, a point or two at a certain time in the match that helped it go their way,” said 16-year FSU head coach Jennifer Hyde, who credited the UNC outfit. “The girls know that in order to have those things go our way, we’ve got to be better.”

 

The Seminoles face another Top-10 foe this Sunday, March 1, when they take on No. 10 Ohio State in the 2020 College MatchDay finale at the USTA National Campus in Orlando at 4 p.m. The match will also air live on Tennis Channel.

 

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 home page, 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. (1) USC – 300  

2. (2) North Carolina – 288

3. (3) Ohio State – 275

4. (4) Florida – 262

5. (5) Texas – 247

6. (7) Wake Forest – 226

7. (8) Stanford – 222

8. (9) Columbia – 200

9. (10) Texas A&M – 191

10. (6) Michigan – 189

T11. (11) Baylor – 177

T11. (12) TCU – 177

13. (13) Tennessee – 152

14. (14) UCLA – 145

15. (15) NC State – 130

16. (16) South Carolina – 127

17. (17) California – 111

18. (18) Georgia – 96

19. (19) Duke – 71

20. (T25) Oklahoma State – 65

21. (20) UCF – 62

22. (22) Mississippi – 54

23. (21) Florida State – 50

24. (23) Oklahoma – 20

25. (24) Virginia – 11 

Receiving Votes: Cornell 8, Harvard 1, Illinois 1

Dropped Out: Cornell (T25)

 

Women

Rank (Last Week) – Points 

1. (1) North Carolina – 300

2. (2) UCLA – 288

3. (3) Stanford – 275

4. (4) Duke – 254

5. (5) NC State – 250

6. (6) Florida State – 237

7. (7) Georgia – 227

8. (8) Texas – 218

9. (11) Oklahoma State – 190

10. (13) Ohio State – 169

11. (12) Pepperdine – 167

12. (9) Princeton – 158

13. (10) Virginia – 137

14. (14) Vanderbilt – 133

15. (20) Georgia Tech – 124

16. (23) Wake Forest – 120

17. (16) Michigan – 117

18. (19) Tennessee – 102

19. (17) Arizona State – 76

20. (21) Texas A&M – 69

21. (15) UCF – 61

22. (18) California – 39

23. (22) Miami (Fla.) – 34

24. (24) South Carolina – 20

25. (NR) Mississippi – 13 

Receiving Votes: LSU 12, USC 12, Old Dominion 10, Florida 8, Columbia 4, Wisconsin 1

Dropped Out: USC (25)

 

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. 17, 2020, with current college players in bold.

ATP
No. 20 John Isner (Georgia)
No. 55 Tennys Sandgren (Tennessee)
No. 73 Steve Johnson (USC)
No. 115 Marcos Giron (UCLA)
No. 125 Bradley Klahn (Stanford)
No. 163 JJ Wolf (Ohio State)
No. 184 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Virginia)
No. 191 Maxime Cressy (UCLA)
No. 196 Mackenzie McDonald (UCLA)
No. 232 Chris Eubanks (Georgia Tech)
No. 247 Noah Rubin (Wake Forest)
No. 255 Brandon Nakashima (Virginia)
No. 274 JC Aragone (Virginia)
No. 281 Jenson Brooksby (Baylor)

WTA
No. 45 Jennifer Brady (UCLA)
No. 48 Danielle Collins (Virginia)
No. 93 Kristie Ahn (Stanford)
No. 120 Francesca Di Lorenzo (Ohio State)
No. 128 Nicole Gibbs (Stanford)
No. 191 Robin Anderson (UCLA)
No. 199 Danielle Lao (USC)
No. 257 Catherine Harrison (UCLA)
No. 280 Jamie Loeb (UNC)
 
(Photo courtesy of UCLA)