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USTA College Tennis

Top 25: May 23, 2018

May 23, 2018

One was an underdog story that hardly felt like it. The other was a favorite facing history in front of its home crowd. Either way, the NCAA champion Stanford women and Wake Forest men finished the year atop the USTA College Tennis Top 25 rankings to cap sensational finishes to remarkable seasons.

The Cardinal women return to the poll's No. 1 position for the first time since Week 1 of 2018. After starting the season 4-3, Stanford finished the year on a 20-match win streak, culminating with a 4-3 victory over Vanderbilt in Tuesday's NCAA title match. Junior Melissa Lord (Bloomfield, Conn.) clinched No. 15-seed Stanford's 20th team championship, matching the Cardinal's own record, set two years ago, as the lowest-seeded team to win an NCAA title. While Stanford and UCLA represent the PAC-12 in the Top 5 of the final poll of the season, the ACC led all conferences with six teams ranked, with the SEC and Big 12 just behind it, with five apiece.

The Demon Deacons, meanwhile, won their first team title on Tuesday on their home courts in Winston-Salem, N.C., defeating Ohio State to return to the No. ADVERTISEMENT 1 ranking they held for multiple weeks throughout the season. Wake Forest had never previously been past the semifinals of the NCAA championship, but went 30-2 this year, winning the ACC regular season and tournament titles, in addition the ITA Indoor Team title. Wake Forest was one of only three ACC teams in the final men's Top 25, though, while the SEC landed eight teams in the rankings, led by No. 4 Texas A&M and No. 5 Mississippi State. The Big 12 was second, with five.

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.

Registration is currently open for the USTA All-American College Combine presented by adidas for American juniors, which will take place at the National Campus June 18-21. Find more at the USTA's College Tennis page.

USTA College Top 25 - Men

Rank (Last Week)

1. (2) Wake Forest – 225

2. (3) Ohio State – 216

3. (1) UCLA – 205

4. (5) Texas A&M – 200

5. (7) Mississippi State – 185

6. (6) USC – 180

7. (9) Illinois – 169

8. (13) Florida – 157

9. (8) North Carolina – 155

10. (10) TCU – 138

11. (11) Texas – 126

12. (4) Stanford – 125

13. (14) Michigan – 123

14. (19) Columbia – 108

15. (12) Florida State – 93

16. (NR) Minnesota – 77

17. (NR) Mississippi – 75

18. (15) Oklahoma – 74

19. (T17) Baylor – 69

20. (NR) Alabama – 57

21. (22) Vanderbilt – 33

22. (23) Tennessee – 20

23. (20) Oklahoma State – 15

24. (NR) Harvard – 14

T25. (16) Tulane – 13

T25. (T17) Georgia – 13

Receiving Votes: Kentucky 10, South Carolina 9, California 4, Oregon 3, Virginia 3, Notre Dame 2, Duke 1, Memphis 1, South Alabama 1.

Dropped Out: Memphis (21), NC State (24), Dartmouth (25).

USTA College Tennis Top 25 - Women

Rank (Last Week)

1. (6) Stanford – 225

2. (1) Vanderbilt – 216

3. (3) Duke – 205

4. (7) Georgia Tech – 198

5. (8) UCLA – 181

6. (2) North Carolina – 172

7. (12) Texas Tech – 166

8. (11) Georgia – 164

9. (4) Pepperdine – 158

10. (5) Texas – 145

11. (18) Florida State – 134

12. (10) Mississippi – 126

13. (14) South Carolina – 124

14. (17) Northwestern – 97

15. (16) Miami (Fla.) – 96

16. (9) Florida – 93

17. (21) Tulsa – 86

18. (13) Oklahoma State – 75

19. (15) Michigan – 57

20. (20) Kansas – 47

21. (19) Illinois – 44

22. (22) Baylor – 33

23. (NR) UCF – 18

24. (NR) Oregon – 17

25. (NR) Virginia - 14

Receiving Votes: Wichita State 8, Wake Forest 4, Princeton 3, Winthrop 1.

Dropped Out: Auburn (23), Princeton (24), Arizona State (25).

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: