USTA College Tennis Top 25: March 14, 2018

In two classic battles of North vs. South, the Stanford women of NorCal conquered two of their Southern counterparts to claim supremacy in the Pac-12 Conference, if not the state of California, this week in the USTA College Tennis Top 25.

A week after its showdown with state-leader No. 2 Pepperdine, of Malibu, was washed out by rain, the Cardinal swept a weekend pair of home matches with UCLA and USC to begin its conference slate. Sophomore Emily Arbuthnott clinched a 4-3 comeback victory over the Bruins on Friday, and star freshman Michaela Gordon (Saratoga, Calif.) led the way with singles and doubles wins in a 4-0 shutout of the Trojans on Saturday.

In the men's poll, Georgia shook up the Top 5 after taking on two of the teams in it. The Bulldogs rode senior Wayne Montgomery's singles win over Ohio State's Mikael Torpegaard to a 4-0 home upset of the then-No. 3 Buckeyes on Wednesday in Athens but ran out of steam by Sunday, falling to the No. 5 Aggies indoors, 4-1. 

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. First-place votes were not tallied.

Note: One member of the voting panel was unable to turn in a ballot this week. Therefore, the maximum number of points a team can receive below is 200. The maximum will return to its usual 225 next week.

The next College MatchDay at the USTA National Campus is on Sunday, April 1, when the Florida and Texas women meet at 5 p.m. Each College MatchDay will air live on Tennis Channel this season. Find the full College MatchDay schedule and more at the USTA's College Tennis page.

USTA College Top 25 - Men

Rank (Last Week)

1. (1) Wake Forest – 200

2. (2) UCLA – 189

3. (4) Stanford – 186

4. (5) Texas A&M – 170

5. (3) Ohio State – 161

6. (6) North Carolina – 158

7. (7) USC – 153

8. (8) Columbia – 135

9. (T9) Texas – 130

10. (11) Illinois – 128

11. (12) Florida State – 107

12. (T14) Georgia – 106

13. (T14) Baylor – 97

T14. (16) Michigan – 90

T14. (18) Mississippi State – 90

16. (13) Florida – 87

17. (T9) Oklahoma State – 86

18. (17) Oklahoma – 85

19. (19) TCU – 55

20. (21) Vanderbilt – 51

21. (20) Duke – 33

22. (25) Kentucky – 26

23. (NR) Memphis – 18

24. (24) Tulane – 13

25. (23) Notre Dame – 12

Receiving Votes: Arizona State 7, NC State 6, Mississippi 3.

Dropped Out: Mississippi.

USTA College Top 25 - Women

Rank (Last Week)

1. (1) North Carolina – 200

2. (2) Pepperdine – 192

3. (3) Vanderbilt – 183

4. (4) Duke – 174

5. (6) Texas Tech – 166

6. (7) Georgia – 157

7. (5) Georgia Tech – 153

8. (10) Florida – 133

9. (9) Oklahoma State – 124

10. (14) Stanford – 121

T11. (8) UCLA – 120

T11. (11) South Carolina – 120

13. (12) Texas – 103

14. (15) Illinois – 99

15. (18) Northwestern – 94

16. (16) Auburn – 83

17. (13) Mississippi – 75

18. (19) Wake Forest – 68

19. (20) Kentucky – 52

20. (17) Florida State – 41

21. (21) Princeton – 40

22. (NR) Miami (Fla.) – 25

23. (NR) Nebraska – 12

24. (NR) Baylor – 10

25. (NR) Arizona State – 9

Receiving Votes: Kansas 5, UCF 5, LSU 3, Texas A&M 3, California 2, Virginia 2, Tennessee 1.

Dropped Out: California, LSU, Ohio State, Texas A&M.

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 and University of Texas Director of the Center for Research and Analytics); Randy Jenks (Universal Tennis Ratings); Bobby Knight (College Tennis Today); Dallas Oliver/Shannon Wrege (Tennis Recruiting Network); Michael Patrick (former University of Tennessee women’s head coach) and Lisa Stone (Parenting Aces).

Previous Top 25 polls:

March 7, 2018

Feb. 28, 2018

Feb. 21, 2018

Feb. 14, 2018

Feb. 7, 2018
Jan. 31, 2018

(Photo courtesy of the University of Miami)