D-I Roundtable Part II; Final D-I Rankings Before Tomorrow's NCAA First Round; North Dakota Adds to List of Programs Cut; Big 12 and Ivy League Conference Awards; Hance and Antonius Advance to M15 Quarterfinals; Sumter ITF J200 Finals Set

Part II of the Tennis Recruiting Network’s NCAA D-I Roundtable is now up, with play beginning across the country tomorrow with all 32 first round matches in the men’s draw and 16 first round matches in the women’s draw. Alongside Alex Gruskin of Cracked Racquets and Chris Halioris of CollegeTennisRanks.com, I give my list of dark horses and possible upsets and pick my champions. I got both right last year; not expecting to be as lucky this year.

The final ITA team rankings before the tournament were released today, confirming that the NCAA tennis committee made several changes via their formula to elevate Georgia and Wake Forest to the top spots despite their rankings of 2 and 4 respectively.

Below are the rankings of the Top 16 teams as well as the top 10 rankings in singles and top 5 rankings in doubles. Below that is the list of seeds in the NCAAs for comparison. Headings go to the full ranking lists and the brackets.

WOMEN:

Team:
(previous week’s ranking in parentheses)
1. Auburn (1)
2. Georgia (2)
3. Texas A&M (3)
4. Ohio State (5)
5. North Carolina (6)
6. Oklahoma (4)
7. Virginia (7)
8. NC State (10)
9. Texas (8)
10. LSU (9)
11. Pepperdine (11)
12. Michigan (18)
13. Southern California (12)
14. Vanderbilt (13)
15. Duke (16)
16. Arizona State (15)

1. Lucciana Perez, Texas A&M

2. Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina

3. Carmen Herea, Texas

4. Luciana Perry, Ohio State

5. Teah Chavez, Ohio State

6. Anastasia Abbagnato, Texas

7. Aysegul Mert, Georgia

8. Piper Charney, Michigan

9. Cadence Brace, LSU

10. Evialina Laskevich, Oklahoma

1. Roisin Gilheany and Gloriana Nahum, Oklahoma

2. Ava Esposito and DJ Bennett, Auburn

3. Gabriella Broadfoot and Victoria Osuigwe, NC State

4. Deniz Dilek and Aysegul Mert, Georgia

5. Ange Oby Kajuru and Susanna Maltby, North Carolina

MEN:

1. Texas (1)

2. TCU (2)

3. Ohio State (3)

4. Wake Forest (4)

5. Virginia (5)

6. Mississippi State (6)

7. LSU (7)

8. Arizona (8)

9. Oklahoma (9)

10. Texas A&M (10)

11. Baylor (11)

12. Georgia (12)

13. South Carolina (13)

14. Illinois (14)

15. UCF (15)

16. Michigan State (25)

1. Dylan Dietrich, Virginia

2. Trevor Svajda, SMU

3. Sebastian Gorzny, Texas

4. Jay Friend, Arizona

5. Michael Zheng, Columbia

6. Paul Inchauspe, Princeton

7. Max Dahlin, Michigan

8. Duncan Chan, TCU

9. Benito Sanchez Martinez, Mississippi State

10. Devin Badenhorst, Baylor

1. DK Suresh and Andrew Delgado, Wake Forest

2. Theo Papamalamis and Togan Tokac, Texas A&M

3. Arda Azkara and Santiago Giamichelle, Georgia

4. Cosme Rolland De Ravel and Duncan Chan, TCU

5. Bruno Nhavene and Luis Alvarez, Oklahoma

1. Wake Forest

2. Texas

3. Ohio State

4. Virginia

5. Mississippi State

6. TCU

7. LSU

8. Arizona

9. Oklahoma

10. Baylor

11. Texas A&M

12. Georgia

13. South Carolina

14. Illinois

15. San Diego

16. UCF

1. Georgia

2. Auburn

3. Ohio State

4. Texas A&M

5. North Carolina

6. Oklahoma

7. Virginia

8. NC State

9. Texas

10. LSU

11. Pepperdine

12. Michigan

13. Southern California

14. Vanderbilt

15. Duke

16. Arizona State

If you read this before 10 a.m. Friday, you still have time to enter the Bracket Challenge at collegetennisranks.com.

Another Division I program announced today the elimination of their tennis programs, with North Dakota joining the growing list of schools that will no longer sponsor tennis. This week alone, the men’s program at Illinois State has been cut and both programs at St. Louis were eliminated. Two Division II schools also announced program cuts. The Arkansas news last Friday appears to have opened the floodgates, although this is traditionally the time of year you would expect decisions to be made for the next academic year.

The final major conference awards have been released, with the Big 12 and Ivy League’s announcements coming this week. For a look at the ACC, SEC and Big 10 awards and links to the announcements of all-conference teams, see my post from last Thursday.

Men:

Co-Players of the Year: Jay Friend, Arizona; Devin Badenhorst, Baylor; Duncan Chan, TCU

Freshman of the Year: Oliver Bonding, TCU

Co-Newcomers of the Year: Ofek Shimanov, Arizona State and Cosme Rolland De Ravel, TCU

Coach of the Year: David Roditi, TCU

Women:

Player of the Year: Emilija Tverijonaite, Arizona State

Freshman of the Year: Jennifer Jackson, TCU

Newcomer of the Year: Vivian Ovrootsky, Arizona State

Coach of the Year: Lee Taylor Walker, TCU

Player of the Year: Peyton Capuano, Dartmouth

Rookie of the Year: Leena Friedman, Yale

Coaching Staff of the Year: Yale

Player of the Year: Michael Zheng, Columbia

Rookie of the Year: Nathan Blokhin, Harvard

Coaching Staff of the Year: Cornell

Hance, who won the M15 in Orlando last week, defeated qualifier Davide Tortora of Italy 7-5, 6-4 and will face another qualifier in Matthew Segura. Segura beat Joao Vitor Goncalves Ceolin of Brazil, who had beated No. 2 seed Christian Langmo(Miami) in the first round.

Antonius defeated No. 4 seed Kaylan Bigun 6-4, 6-2 and will face No. 7 seed Andreja Petrovic(North Dakota, Florida State, Duke) of Norway next. Petrovic beat Andy Johnson 6-4, 6-2 to prevent a second meeting at the M15 level between the USA Junior Davis Cup teammates.

All the juniors are out of the W35 in Boca Raton Florida, although Jordyn Hazelitt and Welles Newman are through to the doubles semifinals. Last week’s Charlotte NC W35 winner Amelia Honer(UC-Santa Barbara) and No. 3 seed Hibah Sahikh(Virginia) have advanced to the quarterfinals and will play each other if they win Friday.

At the W100 in Bonita Springs Florida, unseeded 19-year-old Akasha Urhobo beat No. 3 seed Elvina Kalieva 6-2, 7-5, eliminating Kalieva from the USTA’s Roland Garros Wild Card race. But Kayla Day and Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) have also advanced to the quarterfinals and can still catch Urhobo with a title unless Urhobo reaches the final.

The singles finals at the ITF J200 in Sumter South Carolina are set for Friday, with No. 8 seed Jordan Lee facing Teodor Davidov in the boys final and No. 2 seed Hannah Ayrault playing No. 5 seed Emery Combs for the girls title.

The 15-year-old Lee, who has played only three ITF Junior events and two ITF Pro Circuit events this year, beat unseeded Kamil Stolarczyk 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinals, while Davidov ended the impressive streak of Kayden Colombo 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. Colombo had won the J60 and J100 tournaments the two weeks prior to this one.

Lee has beaten Davidov, also 15, both times they’ve played on the ITF Junior Circuit and also in the semifinals of the Eddie Herr 16s in 2024. Davidov won their meeting in the 12s final of the 2021 Eddie Herr.

Ayrault, the reigning USTA National 16s champion, defeated No. 4 seed Londyn McCord 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 in today’s semifinal. Combs received a walkover from No. 3 seed Adla Lopez to advance to the final.

Ayrault and Combs, both 15, have not played, but she now has a win over Ayrault in the girls doubles final this afternoon. Combs and Olivia De Los Reyes, the Orange Bowl 16s doubles champions, defeated top seeds Ayrault and Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann 6-2, 6-2 for their sixth ITF Junior Circuit doubles title as a pair and their second at the J200 level.

De Los Reyes and Combs were the No. 4 seeds and so were the boys doubles champions, with Theo Hegarty and Erik Schinnerer defeating No. 2 seeds Zavier Augustin and Japan’s Koki Nara 7-5, 6-2 in the final. It’s their first title as a team.

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