D2 Power Armstrong State To Merge With Georgia Southern; Conference Preseason Polls; Time To Serve Em’ Up

It looks like the 13-time NCAA Division II Championship tennis teams at Armstrong State University in Savannah, Georgia, are on borrowed time after news of yesterday’s merger with nearby Georgia Southern University.  The merger, which is expected to take 18 months to complete, will combined the two schools with the Georgia Southern name being retained while the Armstrong State name and history will most likely fall by the wayside. This article from WTOC.com in Savannah says current athletic scholarships will be honored however the ability for many of those student-athletes to compete will probably have to come somewhere else. This current season won’t be effected by the merger but only time will tell if there will be a next season for Armstrong State tennis. The ASU women’s program won the NCAA Championship last year and has won the national title seven times in the last nine years while the men’s program made the NCAA semifinals last year with its most recent NCAA Championship coming in 2012. Updates on the merger can be found at this link.  

Several conferences released their preseason coaches polls on Wednesday with most going as expected. Georgia is the men’s coaches pick with last year’s regular season champs getting 168 points while Florida, last year’s conference tournament champs, received 151 points.  The women’s poll was reversed with Florida the unanimous No. 1 while Georgia was No. 2. 

TCU and Texas were picked as Big 12 men’s co-favorites while Oklahoma State was the unanimous pick on the women’s side. 

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Both the Winthrop men’s and women’s teams were selected as the preseason favorites by the coaches in the Big South. The 18-time champion Winthrop women’s team has been voted the preseason favorite 14 years in a row while the men’s team just edged out last year’s runner-up Presbyterian. Coastal Carolina, which won last year’s title in a 4-3 thriller, departed the conference and is now a member of the Sunbelt. 

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The Sacramento State women, who are an incredible 133-4 in Big Sky matches since 2001, were picked as the preseason No. 1 for the 15th consecutive year just barely edging out last year’s co-regular season champ Northern Arizona while two-time defending conference tournament champion Idaho was selected third. The Idaho men edged out the defending champs Weber State despite WSU receiving one more first place vote. 

Big Sky – Men
1. Idaho (5) 110
2. Weber State (6) 105
3. Sacramento State 99
4. Northern Arizona (1) 98
5. Montana 93
6. Montana State 61
7. Eastern Washington 54
8. Idaho State 53
9. Portland State 50
10. Northern Colorado 37
11. North Dakota 18
12. Southern Utah 14

Big Sky – Women 
1. Sacramento State (5) 113
2. Northern Arizona (5) 111
3. Idaho (2) 106
4. Weber State 86
5. Montana State 82
6. Eastern Washington 74
7. Portland State 58
T8. Idaho State 44
T8. Northern Colorado 44
10. Montana 42
11. Southern Utah 18
12. North Dakota 14

First place votes in parenthesis

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The Army men were the unanimous Patriot League preseason No. 1 as selected by the coaches while the Boston University women earned the top spot over Navy.

Patriot League – Men
1. Army (16), 128 points
2. Navy (2), 114 points
3. Boston University, 97 points
4. Lehigh, 81 points
5. Colgate, 72 points
6. Bucknell, 66 points
7. Loyola Maryland, 42 points
8. Lafayette, 32 points
9. Holy Cross, 16 points