The NCAA released the Division 1 men’s and women’s brackets on Monday evening with very few surprises. As it was a year ago, geography playing a major role in deciding who went where with some regionals much tougher than others while a few were much weaker than others. On the men’s side, Columbia, which is the No. 16 national seed, will welcome in Monmouth, Bryant, and Penn State which in the past would have been a 4, 4, and 3 regional seed. Baylor and TCU have the toughest regionals in terms of ranking with both welcoming in teams that would have had regional seedings of 2, 3, and 3.
On the women’s side Kansas (No. 14) has the toughest draw with Denver, Florida, and Boston College coming to town which would have been a 2, 3, and 3 regional seed. Kansas and Denver met in last year’s NCAA first round in Malibu with Kansas winning a close 4-3 match.
If all the host teams were to advance this is what the Super Regionals would look like the weekend after next.
2. JJ Wolf (Ohio State)
3. Carl Sderlund (Virginia)
4. Alex Rybakov (TCU)
5. Paul Jubb (South Carolina)
6. Brandon Holt (USC)
7. Christian Sigsgaard (Texas)
8. Aleksandar Kovacevic (Illinois)
2. Maxime Cressy/Keegan Smith (UCLA)
3. Nuno Borges/Strahinja Rakic (Mississippi State)
4. Henry Patten/Oli Nolan (UNC Asheville)
2. Katarina Jokic (Georgia)
3. Kate Fahey (Michigan)
4. Ingrid Gamarra Martins (South Carolina)
5. Makenna Jones (North Carolina)
6. Fernanda Contreras (Vanderbilt)
7. Alexa Graham (North Carolina)
8. Sophie Whittle (Gonzaga)
2. Jessie Aney/Alexa Graham (North Carolina)
3. Lauryn John-Baptiste/Ilze Hattingh (Arizona State)
4. Gabby Andrews/Ayan Broomfield (UCLA)
Bobby, are you going to do previews of the various regions (and beyond) like last year? Being able to see each player's UTR, dual record, ITA ranking, etc. to help me guess matchups really made following last year's tournament a more in-depth experience.
I'm hoping to do some for the Super Regionals next week. I just didn't have enough free time to do them for the opening rounds plus there were only 3 days between the announcement of the field and the start of play whereas in the past there were 9 days.