Tennis Channel/USTA College Top 25: March 27, 2019

Go figure, the nation's No. 1 player returned to the lineup for Ohio State, and the Buckeyes returned to No. 1 in the Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis Top 25 men's poll.

 

Star junior JJ Wolf, a Cincinnati native ranked as the nation's No. 1 singles player by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, rejoined the Buckeyes after reaching the Round of 16 at an ATP Challenger event in Drummondville, Canada. Ohio State, which had fallen to No. 2 behind Texas, regained the No. 1 men's ranking, thanks to impressive victories over Michigan State and Michigan to start their Big Ten conference slate. The Longhorns, meanwhile, fell to No. 3 after being upset by Brandon Holt and USC.

 

On the women's side, South Carolina's 4-0 victory over Vanderbilt had perhaps the most significant effect on this week's poll, with South Carolina claiming sole possession of the sixth spot and bumping the Commodores down to No. 9. Syracuse's 4-3 upset of Florida State also saw the Orange pick up a few points this week, while the Seminoles found their way from No. 11 to No. 15.

 

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 is 300.

 

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).

 

Men's Poll

Rank (Last Week) – Points

1. (2) Ohio State – 297

2. (3) Wake Forest – 282

3. (1) Texas – 278

4. (4) Florida – 269

5. (5) Virginia – 249

6. (6) Stanford – 235

7. (7) TCU – 226

8. (8) North Carolina – 214

9. (9) Baylor – 203

10. (11) USC – 202

11. (12) Mississippi State – 175

12. (10) Columbia – 168

13. (14) Texas A&M – 160

14. (13) UCLA – 150

15. (15) Oklahoma – 118

16. (16) Illinois – 113

17. (20) Florida State – 102

18. (21) Tennessee – 88

19. (22) Miami (Fla.) – 70

20. (18) Michigan – 50

21. (25) Oregon – 43

22. (19) Georgia – 42

23. (NR) South Carolina – 33

24. (NR) LSU – 26

25. (NR) NC State – 20

Receiving Votes: San Diego 17, Notre Dame 15, Minnesota 13, Alabama 11, Arizona State 5, Mississippi 5, Arizona 2, California 2, Vanderbilt 2

Dropped Out: Minnesota (17), Notre Dame (23), Vanderbilt (24)

 

Women's Poll

Rank (Last Week) – Points

1. (1) Georgia – 300

2. (2) North Carolina – 288

3. (3) Stanford – 275

4. (4) Duke – 265

5. (5) Pepperdine – 249

6. (T6) South Carolina – 239

7. (8) Texas – 225

8. (9) Ohio State – 207

9. (T6) Vanderbilt – 203

10. (10) UCLA – 188

11. (12) Michigan – 181

12. (13) NC State – 163

13. (14) Oklahoma State – 160

14. (15) California – 132

15. (11) Florida State – 114

16. (17) Washington – 113

17. (19) Texas A&M – 111

18. (18) Kansas – 86

T19. (16) Miami (Fla.) – 74

T19. (20) Virginia – 74

21. (23) UCF – 57

22. (24) Wake Forest – 55

23. (22) USC – 53

24. (21) Northwestern – 43

25. (25) LSU – 19

Receiving Votes: Florida 7, Tennessee 5, Kentucky 4, Syracuse 2, Texas Tech 2

Dropped Out: None

 

Previous Top 25 polls:

March 20, 2019

March 13, 2019

March 6, 2019

Feb. 27, 2019

Feb. 20, 2019

Feb. 13, 2019

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 March 18, 2019, with current college players in bold. (Note: there were no rankings updates on March 25 due to ongoing play at the Miami Open.)

 

ATP

No. 9 John Isner (Georgia)

No. 38 Steve Johnson (USC)

No. 60 Mackenzie McDonald (UCLA)

No. 91 Tennys Sandgren (Tennessee)

No. 93 Bradley Klahn (Stanford)

No. 146 Noah Rubin (Wake Forest)

No. 150 Chris Eubanks (Georgia Tech)

No. 173 Marcos Giron (UCLA)

No. 254 JC Aragone (Virginia)

No. 269 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Virginia)

No. 278 JJ Wolf (Ohio State)

No. 294 Collin Altamirano (Virginia)

 

WTA

No. 26 Danielle Collins (Virginia)

No. 76 Jennifer Brady (UCLA)

No. 125 Nicole Gibbs (Stanford)

No. 153 Danielle Lao (USC)

No. 170 Francesca Di Lorenzo (Ohio State)

No. 188 Kristie Ahn (Stanford)

No. 220 Jamie Loeb (North Carolina)

No. 228 Robin Anderson (UCLA)

No. 304 Maria Mateas (Duke)

 

(Photo courtesy of the University of South Carolina)