USTA COLLEGE TENNIS Top 25: Jan. 31, 2018

The Ohio State men and Stanford women begin the 2018 college tennis season atop the USTA College Tennis Top 25 rankings – good news for the Buckeyes and Cardinal considering the results of the USTA poll in its inaugural year.

The USTA rankings return for the second season with an expanded voter panel, after a year in which the Virginia men and Florida women each began the year at No. 1 and finished 2017 as NCAA Champions.

The Buckeyes have started the season a perfect 4-0 after an ITA Kick-off Weekend in which they didn't drop a point, blanking Yale and North Florida on the strength of a deep singles lineup, including senior Mikael Torpegaard and sophomore JJ Wolf.

Stanford has started the season 1-0, with talented freshman Michaela Gordon and sophomore Emily Arbuthnott leading the Cardinal to a 6-1 victory over San Jose State and setting up a showdown this Saturday vs. No. 2 Vanderbilt in Nashville.

Each team's point total, specified below, is the sum of its ranking points from the USTA's panel of 11 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 225. First-place votes were not tallied.

A number of these programs will be featured live on Tennis Channel this season as part of the College MatchDay series at the USTA National Campus at Lake Nona in Orlando. The 2018 MatchDay schedule kicks off Saturday, Feb. 3, at 7 p.m., with the Florida and Florida State men and women playing simultaneously on both sides of the USTA National Campus's 1,200-seat collegiate stadium.

USTA College Top 25 - Men
1. Ohio State – 216
2. North Carolina – 214
3. Wake Forest – 213
4. Georgia – 195
5. USC – 181
6. UCLA – 176
7. Texas A&M – 163
8. Florida – 155
9. Baylor – 146
10. Stanford – 137
11. Oklahoma State – 129
12. Illinois – 128
13. Texas – 93
14. TCU – 87
15. Michigan – 83
16. Columbia – 80
17. Mississippi State – 73
18. Notre Dame – 70
19. Oklahoma – 64
20. Duke – 63
21. Tulane – 53
22. Florida State – 34
23. California – 33
24. Vanderbilt – 32
25. Virginia - 22
Receiving Votes: San Diego 14, Oregon 8, South Carolina 6, Texas Tech 4, Harvard 2, Mississippi 2, NC State 1.

USTA College Top 25 - Women
1. Stanford – 217
2. Vanderbilt – 207
3. Florida – 204
4. Georgia – 199
5. North Carolina – 193
6. Pepperdine – 182
7. Texas Tech – 168
8. Georgia Tech – 163
9. Duke – 144
10. Michigan – 133
11. Texas – 129
12. Auburn – 121
13. California – 104
14. UCLA – 91
15. Mississippi – 87
16. Wake Forest – 84
17. South Carolina – 82
18. Ohio State – 73
T19. Oklahoma State – 66
T19. Baylor – 66
21. Texas A&M – 25
T22. Arizona State – 22
T22. Miami (Fla.) – 22
24. Washington – 19
25. Northwestern - 16
Receiving Votes: Tennessee 13, TCU 10, Kentucky 4, LSU 4, Rice 2, UNLV 1, UCF 1, Florida State 1.

Voting Panel: 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); Randy Jenks (Universal Tennis Ratings); Bobby Knight (College Tennis Today); Dallas Oliver (Tennis Recruiting Network); Michael Patrick (former University of Tennessee women’s head coach) and Lisa Stone (Parenting Aces).