Wednesday was rankings release day with both the ITA and USTA releases its latest rankings. Up until this point all the ITA team rankings have been done by committee but starting with this week and going forward the computers take so that’s why we saw a bunch of swings in this week’s rankings versus prior weeks. The computer rankings used each team’s four best wins while deducting points for losses so that’s why we had a few notable teams not show up in the top 50 (Georgia/Texas A&M).
As expected Ohio State is the new men’s No. 1 after running the table at the National Team Indoors while Wake Forest comes in at No. 2. Virginia made one of the bigger upward moves from 13 to 4 while Illinois came up from 14 to 8. Oregon made a jump from unranked to 15 while LSU and Penn also made nice jumps into the top 25 after being unranked.
There wasn’t much change in the top 4 on the women’s side, since most teams were idle last week, however there was plenty of move down below 4. Some of the teams that fell the most were Pepperdine from 6 to 20, Michigan from 13 to 27, and Florida from 24 to 48. The teams that rose the most were Washington State going from unranked to 15, Florida State from 20 to 12, and Old Dominion from unranked to No. 19.
The latest USTA Top 25 didn’t have any changes at the No. 1 spot, since Ohio State moved up to No. 1 the week prior on the men’s side, with Georgia remaining at No. 1 on the women’s side. On the men’s side some notable increases were Wake Forest from 5 to 2, TCU from 15 to 7, and Columbia from 14 to 9. Mississippi State fell 10 spots from 2 to 12 after a less than successful weekend in Chicago and Florida dropped 5 spots from 8 to 3 after also coming up short in Chicago.
Many of the top women’s programs were idle last week so the changes weren’t too noticeable in the top 20 aside from Pepperdine falling from 7 to 13 after they lost to Cal who has gone from unranked to 20.
Down below I have the side-by-side comparisons of the ITA and USTA polls plus you can view all of the singles and doubles rankings at these links (men & women).
Slam.Tennis released its first set of computer rankings this week which can be used a comparison with the ITA’s computer rankings. Slam also lets you sort the rankings by conference, strength of schedule, winning percentage, plus you can see the current ITA and USTA rankings. Below are screen shots of the top five but definitely take a look at the site to see a wealth of information which also includes mid-major rankings.
The ITA announced the Men’s National Team Indoor All-Tournament Team on Thursday via Twitter (no actual release) with Ohio State and Wake Forest players dominating as expected. JJ Wolf was named the MVP after a dominating weekend at the top spot in the singles lineup. The only non-Buckeye or Deac to crack the list was Texas senior Colin Markes who went 2-0 at the No. 5 spot while also having multiple match points on Alex Kobelt when their match was stopped due to Ohio State clinching. In my Monday post I listed who my choices were for the All-Tournament team and the only one I missed was at No. 5 where I listed Kobelt instead of Markes.
There were a few mid-week matches that I wanted to touch on. The new men’s No. 1 Ohio State dominated Kentucky 4-0 on Wednesday. The Buckeyes won every completed set in singles and the match most likely would have finished 7-0 if they played them all out. The Florida State women defeated Florida for the third straight time, and second in Gainesville, with a 4-1 win on Tuesday night. FSU won the doubles point and picked up singles wins from Carla Touly, Emmanuelle Salas, and Nandini Das at 2, 3, and 4. In another Tuesday night result on the women’s side, the Washington women defeated Gonzaga 6-1 which also included a win by Stacey Fung over ITA No. 1 Sophie Whittle (4-6, 7-6, 1-0 (9).
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