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The @TennisHalloFame Hosts @ITA_Tennis Collegiate Team Event on the Grass in Newport

Posted by Admin on September 13, 2016
Posted in: ATP, College Tennis, International Tennis Hall of Fame, ITA, NCAA, Newport. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment
Newport Problems: Can't get off court because there's players surrounding you

From College Tennis to the Tennis Hall of Fame: Millennials are so Impatient

Tennis Hall of Fame Hosts ITA Collegiate Team Event on the Grass in Newport
The Hall of Fame ITA Grass Court Invitational will draw four men’s teams and four women’s teams for a first of its kind tournament, which is free and open to the public.
NEWPORT, R.I., September 13, 2016 – In a first of its kind event, the International Tennis Hall of Fame has partnered with the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) to host a three-day grass court tournament that will draw eight NCAA Division 1 tennis teams to compete on the grass courts of the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island this weekend. The Hall of Fame ITA Grass Court Invitational will be held September 16 – 18. The tournament will be free of charge and open to the public, providing a great opportunity for fans to see high-caliber competitive tennis. The tournament will be streamed live on FloTennis – the inaugural broadcast of the ITA’s new partnership with FloSports.
“This is an exciting new event to add to the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s calendar. The objectives of this tournament are multi-faceted. Every day at the Hall of Fame, we strive to inspire the next generation of great tennis champions and very likely, some of them are playing collegiate tennis at this moment. We are delighted to welcome some of the top collegiate players to the Hall of Fame, where they will be immersed in our sport’s rich history and hopefully inspired by the Hall of Famers who are honored here,” said International Tennis Hall of Fame CEO Todd Martin.
He continued, “Additionally, the Hall of Fame is a place where our sport is celebrated every day. Collegiate tennis is an integral part of our sport in so many ways and it is also really exciting to watch. These players are competitive and incredibly talented. They are committed to the sport and to pursuing a higher education. It will be a great event for families with aspiring young players to attend as well as for general tennis fans who are interested in watching some top-notch competitive tennis. For any tennis fans who have been meaning to plan a visit to the museum at the International Tennis Hall of Fame – this would be a great weekend to do it.”
Matches will be played on the historic Bill Talbert Stadium Court and on the additional grass courts at the Hall of Fame, all of which have hosted many of the sport’s greatest tennis legends over the years.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for ITA college athletes to compete in a venue that is really special to tennis worldwide, and to learn more about our sport. We are very pleased to be collaborating with the Hall of Fame to make this unique opportunity available to the student-athletes and look forward to growing this partnership in the future,” said Tim Russell, CEO of the ITA.
Eight teams (4 women’s and 4 men’s) will compete in a flighted singles and doubles round robin format, playing for individual ITA Ranking Points. Following is a list of participating teams, listed with their national ITA ranking, based on the standings at the end of the 2015-2016 seasons.
Men’s Teams:
University of Virginia, No. 1
Texas Christian University, No. 3
University of Michigan, No. 25
Princeton, No. 52
Women’s Teams:
University of California, No. 2
Oklahoma State, No. 8
Georgia Tech, No. 16
Harvard University, No. 55
 The Hall of Fame ITA Grass Court Invitational will be held September 16 – 18 at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island. The event is free of charge and open to the public, providing a great opportunity for fans to see high-caliber competitive tennis. During the event days, admission to the museum at the International Tennis Hall of Fame will be reduced to $8 from the standard $15, making it a great time for tennis fans to visit. Admission to the museum for kids ages 16 & under is always free.
–A. McLaughlin, Hall of Fame
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NCAA Champ McDonald (@MackieMackster) & @SamCrawford18 Nab Wild Cards to @CitiOpen

Posted by Admin on July 13, 2016
Posted in: ATP, Citi Open, Washington. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment
NCAA Champ McDonald & Samantha Crawford Nab Wild Cards to 2016 Citi Open
mcdonald ucla

WASHINGTON (July 13, 2016) — Mackenzie “Mackie” McDonald, who captured both the singles and doubles NCAA Championship, has received an ATP singles qualifying wild card into the Citi Open® Tennis Tournament. Qualifying play will begin Saturday, July 16, at the Rock Creek Park Tennis Center.

McDonald, 21, is the first player in 15 years to win both the singles and doubles NCAA Championship while attending UCLA. He is a three-time All-American, 2016 ITA National Men’s College Player of the Year, and in 2013 at age 18, became the first unranked player in ATP history to qualify for an ATP Masters 1000 tournament.

He replaces Thanasi Kokkinakis, who previously received a qualifying wild card, but had to withdraw to recover from a shoulder injury.

Sam Crawford Courtesy USTA

Sam Crawford (Photo: USTA)

In the women’s field, 21-year-old Samantha Crawford will receive a WTA singles main draw wild card. The Atlanta, Ga., native reached the second round at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships, her first Grand Slam win. Varvara Flink joins the women’s qualifying rounds with a wild card.

—S. Pegarido, Citi Open

College Tennis Review: Is your Team Speeding Forward or Off the Rails?

Posted by Admin on April 7, 2016
Posted in: College Tennis, Jeff McMillan. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

College Tennis Review: Is Your Time Speeding Forward or Off the Rails?
Jeff McMillan, Tennis Atlantic

NCAA_Tennis_Logo

April is crunch time in college tennis and this season has been a wild one thus far which will undoubtedly set up for a wild finish to the regular season. Here is my look at how certain teams are doing heading down the final tracks of the season.

(the real fun gets started in the off the rails segment at the end.)

Speeding Forward

These teams that are hitting their stride just at the right time and show no signs of slowing.

speeding-train-lg

 

Wake Forest: The Deacs are on an absolute tear right now and are looking ominous to any team in the country. Even before the massive win in Chapel Hill they were looking great by plowing through several ranked teams. Sunday’s win in Chapel Hill was a culmination of great fight and showed exactly what Wake Forest is capable of moving forward. A huge matchup with Virginia looms.

Georgia: For the early half of the season UGA was not looking all that imposing, certainly not compared to their lofty standards. Ranked as low as 19, the Dawgs were starting to become somewhat overlooked nationally. All that has changed in a hurry in the last few weeks. Georgia revved up their speed on the tracks with a huge home win over Ohio State on March 20th and have turned the speed to maximum following the dominating performance in College Station this past Friday. Many people expected A&M to win that match and believed that if Georgia was to win it would be in the fashion of sneaking out a 4-3 thriller. Instead the Bulldogs punched the Aggies in the mouth and stole a 4-1 win. They are now 8-0 in the SEC and it looks like once again the SEC title will be heading to Athens.

SMU: Even before the last couple of week this was already a great season for the Mustangs of SMU. Then they decided to turn things up yet another notch by knocking off top 10 Oklahoma State and conference rival USF within the span of little over a week. Now the talk has shifted from will the Mustangs make the NCAA tournament to can they actually host a regional? Regardless of if they host one or not, nobody will want to see the red hot Ponies as their opponent as the season comes to a head.

TCU: This is a team that has not lost since February and one that has not lost at all this year on an open air court. They have not been without their tests but it seems like it’s becoming a college tennis regularity to see a TCU twitter video of Head Coach Roditi celebrating a big win as the Frogs yet again get the victory. The most recent example of this was their heart stopping victory over Texas A&M in front of a hostile crowd. TCU was definitely considered to be a title contender before the year began and they have not shown any signs of disappointing that expectation.

Southern Cal: The whispers of a USC down year had turned to full volume statements following the stunning loss to Washington. But in college tennis things can change in one weekend. The past weekend the Trojans dominated their NorCal conference rivals to make a huge statement. In both matches, the Trojans dropped the doubles point to Cal and Stanford respectively and in both they stormed back in singles to end up with convincing wins. It goes without saying that no matter what the season is, nobody should ever look past the USC Trojans in May.

Northwestern: The Wildcats have been a pleasant surprise this year. People expected them to have a good team but I don’t think anyone anticipated them being this good. The guys from Evanston have only 2 losses on their resume (one of which has since been avenged) thus far and have shown no signs of slowing down. They look set to host a regional as they continue to impress week after week.

 

Gaining Traction

These teams might are starting to find the track just at the right time

Gaining-traction

 

Duke: This extremely young team has had a pretty disappointing year for Duke standards. The Blue Devils fell out of the rankings for a couple weeks in March and the season looked to be shot. But thanks to a good win over NC State on Friday, suddenly things are starting to look up for the Blue Devils. Even more encouraging than the win over NC State was the fight they gave Virginia in match largely expected to be a rout. If they can bring that level of play for the ACC tournament then they can be surprisingly dangerous. (I say ACC tournament because the rest of their regular season schedule is unfortunate with very tough matches vs Wake and UNC and a match vs Clemson which will give them no benefit to winning)

Washington: The NCAA tournament drought for the Huskies looks to be coming to an end this year. The team has shown a lot in recent weeks with solid wins, punctuated with the cornerstone win over Southern Cal. Some tough Pac 12 matches remain vs Stanford, Cal and Oregon but the Huskies look to be playing their best tennis at the right time.

Nebraska: The Cornhusker improvement has not necessarily been shown in wins so far but in how they have played in recent matches. They are starting to really compete vs every team in the Big 10. Only a matter of time before they pull off the desired upset win.

Alabama: Things did not look great for Alabama early in the year and it took a while for things to turn around but now the Crimson Tide look to be finding their game. They are in battles with every SEC team now and most recently pulled out an important win at Ole Miss. They have played themselves into a good position to make the NCAA tournament.

Loyola Marymount: The Lions have been one of the best unranked teams for the past couple of seasons, being right there and threatening ranked teams, so close to the top 75 promised land. Finally they have gotten there this year and are looking like a legitimate contender in the West Coast Conference thanks to 3 consecutive wins over ranked teams.

Utah State: Utah State has quietly built a very solid program out in Logan, one that been a consistent force in the Mountain West. The Aggies have been playing good tennis in recent weeks. They look to be emerging as the favorite to win the Mountain West which is the most evenly matched conference top to bottom in the country.

 

Losing Steam

These teams are started to slow down when it matters most

losing steam

 

Oklahoma State: Not that long ago Oklahoma State was looking very dangerous and like a national title contender. Now they are looking very vulnerable to an early NCAA tournament upset. The Cowboys were badly hurt when their solid #2 player Temur Ismailov pulled a KU Singh (apologies to UGA fans) and abandoned the team midstream to go play in the pros. Suddenly the Pokes lineup is looking mighty thin and just at the wrong time as they are about to start the brutal Big 12 conference schedule.

Stanford: Just how many chances does this team need before people give up on them as a serious contender? All year people parrot how talented Stanford is and how they are going to start gelling at any moment now. I was one of these, I thought this year’s Stanford’s team was finally a legitimate one. But what do they do when they are presented with opportunity? Get blown away in singles by the LA Pac 12 power firm. They do not have a single signature win this year and are running out of opportunities once again.

USF: Similar to Oklahoma State, the Bulls were looking great in the early parts of the year but have since fallen off the pace. And it’s now looking possible that they are the 4th best team in the AAC (behind Tulane, Tulsa and SMU). The loss to SMU on Saturday was a real eye opener to just how much this team is starting to skid on the tracks. They do not have a real solid option in the lower parts of the lineup and Roberto Cid is having to do too much on his own at the moment.

Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish are 2-6 in their last 8 ACC games and things are not looking good for their hopes of an NCAA tournament berth. Missing the NCAA tournament would be a pretty big disappointment for this veteran heavy team and it will be very hard for them to do so now.

Harvard: A heartbreaking loss for Harvard on Sunday vs Columbia was the cap on what has been a disappointing few weeks for the Crimson. They have lost to a number of teams that are considered to be around their level. They are just losing too many 50/50 matches. They need to find a way to get the killer instinct back.

Drake: After a hot middle part of the year, Drake has hit rough sledding recently. They would not be under the skidding category if it was not for the horrendous loss to William & Mary that they suffered in their most recent match. This match alone is the one that is putting Drake’s tournament chances in jeopardy (still a high chance to win their almost nonexistent conference though).

Off The Rails

These teams have lost the map, way off the tracks and have no way back on

off the rails

Tennessee: Hey what are the Vols doing on this list?? They are on a 5 match tear! Well as impressive as it is to beat Murray State 4 times in a row when they do not field a full lineup in any of the matches, unfortunately the Vols still end up way off the rails. 0-8 in the SEC and not close to sniffing the top 75. The days of JP Smith, Rhyne Williams and Tennys Sandgren seem like eons ago now. Even the days of Reese and Libietis seem like fairytales now. One thing Tennessee can feel good about is that some teams still consider beating them warrants an excuse to have a mosh pit locker room celebration (see the South Carolina Gamecocks). Any more seasons like this though and teams will treat wins over Tennessee how they treat wins over Boston College. Oh wait some teams consider that win to be cause for rapturous celebration as well (see Clemson Tigers).

Iowa: At one point things were actually looking good for Iowa. They were in the top 35 in the rankings and it looked like they were going to have a rare good season for Iowa tennis. But then Big 10 play started. Well actually two of their worst losses came to non Big 10 teams (Lamar and Cal Poly got em). And they are no longer being competitive, many of the recent losses being routs. Good news for Iowa fans? They can still enjoy watching a 125 pound guy roll around with another 125 pound guy for a chance at an NCAA individual title on youtube replay (spoiler alert… The Hawkeye loses)

Arizona: This selection could be very controversial because it’s debatable whether the Arizona train was ever on the rails in the first place. Naoki Takeda does his best to try and drive the team forward but he alone can’t save a program that seems content to be completely irrelevant (several years now that Arizona has been a non-factor).  I’m not sure you’ll believe me… but there’s a legend out there that Arizona once beat UCLA in tennis. In 2010 according to legend. Can’t possibly be true. Let’s stick to the true stories of how the Wildcats took down mighty UC Riverside.

San Diego State: San Diego is a very beautiful city. However it is probably a little less beautiful when you are stuck playing 2nd fiddle to a cross-town school that is 1/6th your enrollment size.  This was actually supposed to be a good season for SDSU (the heart-eaters, not the fluffy tails from South Dakota) but they have never got on track all season. While they are supposed to be challenging San Diego they are falling behind even teams like UCSB and Santa Clara. Now they have played a tough schedule and the Mountain West is so evenly matched that anything is possible still for the Aztecs.

Baylor: It was always going to be crushing news for Baylor that the Baylor tennis training camps in Budapest and Dortmund would taking a year off this year but even still Baylor was expected to be a good team once again. Compared to the rest of the teams in this section, they are very good but for Baylor standards it is not good. Missing the NCAA tournament is a real possibility as the remaining parts of their schedule are brutal and they just failed to cash in on their best chance for a big win (at home vs Texas Tech. This is about as off the rails as Baylor tennis ever gets.

UTSA: I understand the concept of a down season after you lose several of your top players but how does a team go from a breakout year in 2015 to a 2-17 year in 2016? 2-17. (The Roadrunners actually have 3 wins but they never entered in the win over UIW on ITA so we can’t quite count that one can we?) When you fall behind Texas Rio Grand Valley in tennis after losing to them, a university that has existed for less than a year, you know things are bad. This tennis team does not do a very good job of distracting UTSA fans (they exist? Well I lived in San Antonio for 2 years and I met about 8 in a city of 1.3 million in that time so yes they exist) from their 3-9 football or their 5-27 men’s basketball team.

Tennis Atlantic’s 2016 @ITA College Tennis Conference Power Rankings

Posted by Admin on February 26, 2016
Posted in: College Tennis, ITA, Jeff McMillan, NCAA. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Tennis Atlantic’s 2016 @ITA College Tennis Conference Power Rankings
Jeff McMillan, Tennis Atlantic

 

tennis power rankings

With the first ITA computer rankings of the year being released this week, I figured it was time to break out my own Conference Power Formula Rankings again. It is the same as last year except for a slight adjustment that punishes conferences less for having unranked teams. The rankings of every team are taken to determine how many points they add to the conference’s overall total which is then divided by the number of teams in each conference. The lower the score the better.

ITA_Logo_500_x_300

The point totals look like this:

#1: -25

#2: -21

#3: -18

#4: -15

#5: -12

#6: -10

#7: -8

#8: -6

#9: -4

#10: -2

#11: 0

#12: 2

#13: 4

#14: 6

#15: 8

#16: 10

17-75 same as ranking

Unranked team: 85

So as you can see. The point totals reward top 10 teams with negative numbers and reward top 16 teams. Below the top 16, the numbers are self-explanatory. Without further ado, here are the conference rankings based on overall strength.

 

 big 12 logo

  1. Big 12

6 Texas Tech, 8 TCU, 9 Oklahoma State, 10 Oklahoma, 26 Texas, 34 Baylor

Score: 6.33

Once again this formula puts the Big 12 firmly at the top thanks to having no teams ranked lower than 34. No weak links at all in Big 12

pac 12 logo

  1. Pac 12

4 UCLA, 12 Cal, 13 USC, 20 Oregon, 29 Stanford, 31 Washington, 53 Utah, Arizona

Score: 26.13

Pac 12 comes in 2nd thanks to teams like Oregon and Washington jumping up the rankings. Having only 1 unranked team helps the Pac 12 as well, as does having 3 top 16 teams.

sec uga

  1. SEC

7 Texas A&M, 16 Georgia, 18 Kentucky, 19 Ole Miss, 37 LSU, 41 Florida, 42 Mississippi State, 45 Vanderbilt, 48 Auburn, 51 Arkansas, 56 Tennessee, 61 South Carolina, Alabama

Score: 38.84

The SEC is helped by having only 1 unranked team out of 13. The gap from 19 to 37 prevents them a bit from moving up any further.

 Big Ten Logo

  1. Big Ten

3 Ohio State, 11 Illinois, 15 Northwestern, 21 Penn State, 28 Michigan, 36 Wisconsin, 39 Purdue, 43 Iowa, 64 Indiana, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska

Score: 41.33

Having 3 unranked teams hurts the Big Ten, however having 8 teams within the top 43 is a boost.

ACC Men's Tennis

  1. ACC

1 North Carolina, 2 Virginia, 5 Wake Forest, 25 NC State, 35 Florida State, 46 Virginia Tech, 47 Notre Dame, 54 Duke, 57 Georgia Tech, Miami, Clemson, Boston College, Louisville

Score: 42

This is the most interesting score to see. The ACC has 3 top 5 teams and yet still finishes last among the power 5 conferences. This is due to the gap from 5 to NC State at 25 and also only having 5 teams within the top 45. 5 unranked teams does not help either.

Non power 5 conferences with more than 2 ranked teams

  1. American

14 USF, 17 Memphis, 22 Tulsa, 33 Tulane, 60 SMU, 4 unranked teams

Score: 53.11

Strong score for the American. If not for the few schools who do not even give tennis scholarships in the league (UCONN) the American would threaten to overtake a power 5 league.

  1. Ivy League

23 Columbia, 32 Harvard, 38 Dartmouth, 52 Princeton, 59 Penn, 68 Cornell, Brown, Yale

Score: 55.25

Good score for the Ivy League puts them solidly in 7th. Not having a team in the top 16 hurts their chances of moving up.

  1. Big West

27 UC Santa Barbara, 49 UC Davis, 62 UC Irvine, 3 unranked

Score: 65.5

8th is about the best the Big West can hope for. Pretty good league this year indeed.

  1. Conference USA

30 Rice, 50 MTSU, 55 Old Dominion, 5 unranked

Score: 70

5 unranked teams hurts the CUSA, but overall still a pretty competitive league this year.

  1. West Coast

24 San Diego, 58 BYU, 70 Pacific, 72 Santa Clara, 72 Portland, 5 unranked

Score: 72.1

Having 5 ranked teams is phenomenal for the Big West and it gives good unranked teams like Loyola Marymount the chance to get ranked wins as the season progresses.

 

Conferences with only 1 or 2 ranked teams 

  1. Missouri Valley

44 Drake, 71 Wichita State, 5 unranked

Score: 77.14

12. Summit League

40 Denver, 5 unranked

Score: 77.5

 

13. Mountain West

65 San Diego State, 67 Boise State, 6 unranked

Score: 80.25

 

  1. Sun Belt

63 Georgia State, 75 South Alabama, 5 unranked

Score: 80.29

 

  1. Southland

66 Abilene Christian, 5 unranked

Score 81.83

 

  1. MAC

69 Western Michigan, 5 unranked

Score: 82.33

 

  1. Atlantic Sun

75 North Florida, 6 unranked

Score: 83.57

Conferences with no ranked teams and therefore the score of 85:

Atlantic 10, Big East, Big Sky, Big South, Colonial, Horizon, MAAC, MEAC, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Southern, SWAC, Patriot, WAC

2016 @ITATennis All-Indoor Mens’ National Standouts

Posted by Admin on February 16, 2016
Posted in: Charlottesville, ITA, Jeff McMillan, NCAA, University of Virginia. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

 

Division I Men's National Team Indoors Logo2-2016-01-15

2016 @ITATennis All-Indoor Mens’ National Standouts
Jeff McMillan, Tennis Atlantic

The men’s ITA Indoor National Championships have come and gone and what a tournament it was. Several great matches took place, with the finale being the best of all. The North Carolina Tar Heels stunned the college tennis world by taking out the heavily favored Virginia Cavaliers on their home courts in Charlottesville 4-2 in a match that had two 3rd set tiebreakers and one match decided at 7-5 in the 3rd. It was an explosive end to an overall electric event.
I have selected an All-Indoor Team for the MVP of the tournament in each position. Several were tough to select while a few were fairly simple selections. See what you think of my All-Indoor Team and if you agree with my choices.

Singles:

1. Mackenzie McDonald, UCLA – The #1 position was probably the toughest to select an MVP from. No player was completely dominant in Charlottesville. I chose McDonald because he re-established himself as a top national player this weekend and had an important win for his team by coming back from a set down to defeat Wayne Montgomery of Georgia. He also had a straight sets win over Brayden Schnur. He did not lose a match over the weekend as his 3rd match with Arthur Rinderknech went unfinished.
2. Alex Rybakov, TCU – Rybakov gets the nod here at #2, just barely over Petros Chysochos of Wake, based on his dramatic 3rd set breaker win over Max De Vroome that gave TCU the 4-3 win over Southern Cal. His win turned out to be one of the highlights of the whole weekend. He also routinely neat Jared Hiltzik in the round of 16, confirming his spot as one of the nation’s top #2 players. He was in a tight match with Thai-Son Kwiatkowski before it was ended due to Virginia’s 4-1 win. Excellent weekend from the Freshman.
3. Colin Altamirano, Virginia – Dropped a total of 13 games in Virginia’s 1st three matches on their march towards the final. He blasted Filip Vittek of San Diego, Jonathan Ho of Wake Forest and Guillermo Nunez of TCU giving Virginia a quick point in each of those matches, huge for momentum. He would have been the MVP of the entire tournament regardless of position had he finished off Brett Clark of North Carolina in the final. He never got that chance due to his Virginia being unable to win one of the two tiebreaks on courts 1 & 2. If it was 3-3, you would have had to have liked Altamirano’s chances vs Clark late in the 3rd.
4. Jack Murray, UNC – Murray is the selection at #4 over several other candidates (Bogaerts of Wake, Cailleau of Texas Tech and Sell of UCLA) because the last image of the entire event features Murray triumphantly capturing the championship for his Tar Heels with a 6-4 0-6 7-5 win over Mac Styslinger of Virginia. Sometimes a single victory is more important than an entire event worth of results. But Murray was no slouch the rest of the event either, he crushed Herkko Pollanen of Ohio State 6-2 6-3 in the quarterfinals and did not lose his other two matches, splitting sets with other candidates for this selection Karue Sell and Jolan Cailleau before they were abandoned.
5. JC Aragone, Virginia – Virginia did not win the Championship this year but it was in no way the fault of JC Aragone who brought his best stuff in UVA’s toughest matches in the event. In both of Virginia’s 4-3 matches (the win over Wake and the loss vs UNC) Aragone obliterated his opponent at #5. Both of these destructions were very important for Virginia. In the Wake match it was critical to get a point on the board quick after losing doubles and in the UNC match it was big to extend the lead to 2-0 after a short amount of time. His results this week show that he is one of the top lower lineup players in America.
6. Anudeep Kodali, North Carolina – The Freshman gets the selection based on his play in the later critical stages of the ITA indoor championships. He started the event with a 6-1 6-3 win over Bjorn Thompson of Texas Tech. He did take one on the chin vs Ohio State but bounced back admirably. He was a critical point for the Tar Heels vs UCLA in his one set down rally defeat of Austin Rapp. But the true reason he makes the All-Indoor team is the way he dismantled Henrik Wiersholm of Virginia 6-2 6-2. Wiersholm had been playing great tennis and was the prime candidate for this selection before this match. UVA was considered to be a big favorite at #6, nobody really though Kodali would challenge Wiersholm, let alone beat him, let alone destroy him! That point set a tone and showed that UNC was there to play.

Doubles:

Martin Redlicki/Mackenzie McDonald, UCLA – 3-0 for the weekend for this pair of Bruins. Beating 2 top 15 doubles teams 6-3 is quite impressive, as well as a close clincher win over Texas A&M to give UCLA the doubles point. Definitely the doubles stars of the indoor event.

Alex Sendegeya/Bjorn Thompson, Texas Tech – 2 big wins for this combo. A 6-1 destruction of Baylor and a 7-6 win over UNC that gave Texas Tech the doubles point as they attempted to pull off the upset.

Romain Bogaerts/Dennis Uspensky, Wake Forest – Had a dominating win over Soutern Cal and a critical 7-6(3) victory over the Virginia doubles team of Altamirano and Aragone which gave Wake Forest the critical doubles point in that match.

New @Shape_Magazine Invitational To Offer @VolvoCarOpen Wild Cards to College Players

Posted by Admin on January 27, 2016
Posted in: ATP, Charleston, Volvo Car Open. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Family Circle Tennis Center to host SHAPE Magazine Invitational, 

Winners Receive Wild Card Entry into Volvo Car Open Main Draw

 

Family Circle Tennis Center

Family Circle Tennis Center

 

DANIEL ISLAND, S.C. – Family Circle Tennis Center announced today that it would host the inaugural SHAPE Magazine Invitational at its facility March 1st – 3rd, 2016. The tournament is a one-of-a-kind event that will connect female American student-athletes who aspire to play professional tennis after college.

The winners of the SHAPE Magazine Invitational, in both singles and doubles, will receive Wild Cards into the main draw of the Volvo Car Open, April 4 – 10, 2016. In addition, the singles finalist will receive a Wild Card into the qualifying round of the Volvo Car Open, April 2 – 3, 2016.

“The SHAPE Magazine Invitational provides an incredible opportunity for American women in college tennis to play at one of the biggest tournaments on the WTA Tour, the Volvo Car Open,” said Stephen Amritraj, USTA National Collegiate Coach. “This event is the latest example of showcasing college tennis as a pathway to the pros, and providing a tournament that we hope will be a staple on the calendar.”

To be eligible to compete in the SHAPE Magazine Invitational, an athlete must be affiliated with a NCAA school, either as a current player, past player (within the last three semesters), or with a signed letter of intent or verbal agreement for Fall 2016.

“We have worked with the USTA Collegiate Directors to secure a strong player field for March’s tournament,” said Rob Eppelsheimer, Family Circle Tennis Center Tennis Operations Director. “The purpose of this event is for junior tennis players to have an opportunity to compete at the next level, and for current college players to understand the world of professional tennis. For athletes to be guaranteed three matches in a competitive tournament is an enticing prospect.”

“SHAPE’s core mission is to empower women to achieve their personal goals,” explains Tim O’Connor, SHAPE Publisher. “We are honored to be able to provide a platform that will positively impact the future of young female athletes”.

volvocaropen

The player field has representation from athletes across the Southeast’s top universities, including Georgia, Alabama, Vanderbilt, North Carolina, South Carolina, Duke and College of Charleston, among others.

The tournament’s singles will consist of a round robin format with players divided into four groups. The winner of each group will advance to the semifinals. Group play will consist of two out of three sets, with a match tiebreak for the third set. Semifinals and finals will consist of two out of three sets

The doubles format will consist of single elimination. Group play will consist of two out of three sets with a match tiebreak for the third set.

—A. Alpino, Volvo Car Open

 

College Tennis: Early Season Preview and Results

Posted by Admin on January 26, 2016
Posted in: College Tennis, Jeff McMillan, NCAA. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

College Tennis: Early Season Preview and Results
Jeff McMillan, Tennis Atlantic

NCAA_Tennis_Logo

College tennis season is officially back in full swing! We had some great dual matches over the past weekend in the ITA indoor kickoff regionals in the second full weekend of the season. It is, of course, exceptionally early to be judging teams and players. However, based on early results there are a few teams that are obviously much better and much worse than a season ago.

I will explore which teams look to be the most improved from last year and also explore which teams appear to have taken significant steps back.

upswing

On The Upswing

San Diego

Each and every year the Torreros put out a strong team, making them one of the top “mid-major” programs in the entire country. This 2016 team appears to be their strongest team yet. Sporting three top 100 ranked ITA players and a top 10 ranked doubles team, San Diego went into snowy Durham (something Cal was unable to do as they had to cancel their trip to Durham) and came out as the winners of the regional. The veteran Torreros used their experience and poise to knock off the Duke Blue Devils on their home court which is no easy feat no matter how young Duke is this year. Senior #35 Uros Petronijevic led the way with a huge 6-4 7-5 win over #12 Nicolas Alvarez at the #1 position. That win in addition to the doubles point set the tone for the match and allowed Filip Vitek and Joshua Page to seal the victory.

Perhaps even more impressive than the win over a non-vintage Duke team was the 4-0 domination of Vanderbilt in the 1st round of the regional. Never letting the Commodores have a sniff at the win.

San Diego will now go on to Charlottesville to compete against the best teams in the country. Their performance there will go a long way to show just how good this team can be. This is THE year for San Diego. The Senior leadership of Uros Petronijevic, Jordan Angus and Romain Kalaydjian plus Junior Filip Vittek create the strong base for the team. These guys have all been together for a few years now and know what it takes to get over the hump and are ready to do so. UMBC transfer Jaan Kononov, who has experience playing #1 at the D1 level adds another layer of depth and dimension to the team as well.

The key for San Diego this year will be whether they can finish the year in the top 16 or not. It is vital that they do so they can host their own regional for once and not rely on the NCAA tournament committee to once again ship them to USC or UCLA and once again be a victim of location. This win over Duke and Vandy shows just what this team can do if they are removed from the confines of LA where they are again and again subject to being sent. Top 16 is absolutely vital. I think they can do it. The Torreros are a top 10 sleeper this year.

 

Kentucky

Last year Kentucky had a historically bad season. They finished the year outside the top 75 and fell way down in the pecking order of the SEC. It was a hard year for a program that had been used to success and was pushing nationally elite in the days of Eric Quigley. But it seems that the hard times were short lived for the Wildcats. Early into the year it is evident already that this UK team is far more talented and better than the team from a season ago. This team is stronger at the top with a blossoming player in William Bushamuka who will shoot up the rankings more and more as the season goes on. Freshman Ryotaro Matsamura is a massive influx of talent at #2 for this team. He will combine with Bushamuka for a good one-two punch this year. The improvement was immediately apparent last weekend as they went to Duke and shocked the Blue Devils. That is exactly the type of win that the UK team of a year ago was not capable of. They followed that win up with a nice win over an improved Michigan team this past weekend. In both matches Kentucky dominated the top 3 positions with Bushamuka and Matsamura rolling joined with Nils Ellefsen at #3.

The Wildcats do show signs of weakness at the bottom 3 positions however, as they struggled to get wins at 4-6 vs both Duke and Michigan. But the strength of the top 3 could be enough to offset that weakness. Plus if and when Beck Pennington returns to the lineup the Wildcats should turn that strong top 3 into a strong top 4.

Even with the lack of depth this team is certainly lightyears better than the 2015 edition of the Kentucky Wildcats and will make a push for the tournament. The SEC is a big jumble in the middle and I could see the Wildcats pulling some upsets and eventually becoming the breakthrough team of 2016 in that league.

Tulane

Tulane probably does not want to hear this after a gut-wrenching loss to Southern Cal in LA this past weekend but the Green Wave have one hell of a team this year and will be vying for a top 30 or even 25 spot this season. Not just any team can go into the City of Angels and take the mighty Trojans all the way to the wire. They were in the winning position for what would have been a massive upset and program changing win. The only negative you can take away from that effort in LA is that Tulane will now certainly not sneak up on anyone this year. Everyone in the college tennis world took notice of them after this weekend if they were not already aware of the team they have. Because this team is legit all across the board.

The current #1 ranked ITA player Dominik Koepfer spearheads the Green Wave’s ascension. He is backed by a nice mix of talented players including #63 Constantin Schmitz, #111 Sebastian Rey and the Van Cott twins.

Tulane made a move last year and was a much improved team from the 2014 team. They ended up being one of the last teams left out of the NCAA tournament, something that has undoubtedly made this year’s version even hungrier. They have all of their team back this year and they are a year stronger, more experienced and hungrier than ever to achieve more and I believe they will do just that and are my pick to win the American Athletic Conference this year.

Oregon

It could be a dangerous proposition to put too much stock in a near win vs a team that is clearly down from a year ago but that is exactly what I am going to with the Oregon Ducks. The Ducks took Baylor to the absolute limit in Waco before ultimately falling in a 3rd set tiebreaker (a buster). Waco is one of those college tennis shrines where it is impressive to have a good performance there no matter how good the Baylor team is.

Last year, Oregon disappointingly missed out on the NCAA tournament and took somewhat of a step back from what was expected. However, the 2016 team looks better and back on track. Before falling in heartbreaking fashion to the Bears on Sunday, Oregon dismissed a pretty good Old Dominion team 4-1 and before that, beat a solid UC Santa Barbara team in routine 7-0 fashion. The Oregon of a year ago would have not beat those teams so soundly but they would have been in a battle. The ability to put away dangerous mid-majors like UCSB and Old Dominion shows that this team has its head in the right place. And the fact that they came to battle with Baylor also shows an improvement in team mentality and belief.

A big reason for this improvement is the addition of super talented Freshman Thomas Laurent of France. He is a big add for Oregon and probably one of the most talented freshmen that the Oregon program has ever taken in. He was the player who suffered the clinching rough loss at #2 to Maxime Tchoutakian which was always going to be a tough spot for a freshman to get a big win on the road like that. The rest of the lineup is well balanced, with no weaknesses and no stand outs. Opposing teams will not know where their points will come from during any given match vs Oregon. Oregon should make the tournament this year and could push the Cali Quad in matches in the Pac 12.

On The Upswing honorable mentions: Arkansas, UC-Santa Barbara, Fresno State, BYU, Buffalo

Sliding Downward

downswing

Texas

Tough times were predictable following the departure of the talent laden senior class of 2015. Hess-Olesen, Glasspool and Berkowicz were the backbone and the limbs of Texas tennis the past couple of seasons and to suddenly be deprived of them was always going to be a big blow.

With that being said, the reloading process does not appear to be off to a very good start. Liam Caruana was supposed to be a stud #1 and a big get for the Longhorns, but instead he is playing in the Australian Open Juniors event and has decided against going to Austin for college tennis. A brief glimpse at this Longhorn lineup and it is evident that this team is nowhere close to the top 10 level Texas had become accustomed to the past two seasons. The results have backed that up thus far. A bad loss to a decent but not great Washington team and a lopsided loss to Florida did nothing to show that Texas will be better than the lineup indicates. They did gain a little bit of momentum with a very gutsy comeback effort vs Ole Miss, where they rallied from a set down on four courts and came up just short on one of the four courts. But still that is three losses already into this very young season.

The main problem with this team is at the top. George Goldhoff must take the reins at #1 pretty much by default. He has not been a great player for Texas in his career so far even at the #4 position, you could even say he has been somewhat disappointing and now he must play #1? That is not a recipe for success. Freshman Harrison Scott should be a decent player but he cannot do it all himself. Rodrigo Banzer could help a little bit despite taking one on the chin at #3 vs Ole Miss. John Mee should be a solid bottom of the lineup player in his 2nd college season but early season results so far indicate he has taken a step back and will not be a big contributor so they must rely on less talented guys to hold down the bottom while struggling at the top.

The Big 12 will be brutal this year as every team aside from Texas looks to be absolutely loaded. Tough year ahead for the Longhorns.

Clemson

One of the teams that looks to be significantly worse this year from a season ago is the Clemson Tigers. Things did not look good ever since the fairly poor fall results in the individual events and the results thus far have not shown any signs of improvement. Two lopsided losses to Dartmouth and Penn State this past weekend showed the lack of talent on the team. There was never a moment in either match where it looked like Clemson had a chance to win. There were not even any what I like to call “create your own victory” scenarios that coaches love to throw out there. And Penn State and Dartmouth are not world beaters. Good teams? Yes. Teams that should be beating you 6-1 if you are an ACC team? No

The real sting in the tail, however, was the loss to Mercer the previous weekend. Mercer is probably not a top 150 caliber team (shown by their awful 6-1 loss to Southern Illinois after beating Clemson).

Now how did Clemson get to this point? Remember this team is only 2 years removed from back-to-back NCAA tournament 2nd round appearances, being only 1 court away from a Sweet 16 trip each year.  The answer is talent. This team has lost a lot of talent recently and has not replaced it. Luke Johnson is a very solid player at the #5 or #4 position but he is having to play #1 now, pretty much by default (much like Goldhoff of Texas as mentioned above). Alexandre Favrot was a bigtime recruit and is supposed to be a great player for Clemson this year. It would probably be best to put him at #1 and see what he can do versus the top talents in the country. The lack of growth from a few of the players at the bottom of the lineup hurts the team as well. Certain players have not shown improvement and therefore they accumulate quite a few losses lower in the lineup. And let’s not forget that Hampton Drake transferred to Duke after having a solid end to 2015 last year.

It’s unlikely that this team will finish the year in the top 75. They will need to have a few upsets in order for that to happen. They will need big contributions from some of the lower lineup guys and hope that Favrot has a breakout year at #1.

Louisville

The Louisville Cardinal are a hard team to figure out, mainly because they lack an identity and their team seems to be a jumble of players who don’t mesh well together. They are clearly not as good as a year ago thanks to the departure of Sebastian Stiefelmeyer, who had one of the best breakout years in the country last year for an individual. So far this year, they have been roughed up by Northwestern, roughed up by Memphis and lost to UC Santa Barbara in a surprise. They showed no lineup consistency in any of those 3 matches. Yes, it is early in the year and they have a very young team, so it is normal to fit and piece things together to see where players fit. But it is a little odd to have players drop in and out of the lineup the way Louisville does (they did this to an extent last year as well).

For instance, Jeffrey Brown and Sean Donohue did not make an appearance in the singles lineup vs UCSB and Brown not vs Memphis either despite player at 2 and 3 vs Northwestern. Also Christopher Morin-Kougoucheff did not play singles in the Cardinals first 2 matches against good competition and then suddenly appears at #3 vs UCSB. This type of lineup inconsistency will certainly keep the opposition guessing but at the cost of destroying team chemistry and individual confidence. This team will need to find some solid answers moving forward but it is looking unlikely with the lack of talent on the roster.

South Carolina

Clemson was not the only team from the Palmetto state that had a rough weekend on the road this past weekend. The Gamecocks equaled their rival’s tough weekend in New Hampshire with a tough weekend of their own in Columbus by falling in consecutive matches to Denver and Wichita State.

On paper, the Gamecocks should really be better this year than they were a year ago. They have an influx of some new talented freshmen and appear to have more depth plus they lost automatic loss machine Andrew Adams to graduation. So what exactly is going on with this team? They have issues at the top, with no dominant #1 type of player. The depth also appears to not be as strong as originally thought.

Gamecock coach Josh Goffi has made it a big point of emphasis in recent years to recruit Americans. This wins him some fans with those who believe college tennis has too many foreigners (I am not one of those people, I like foreigners playing the college game). Goffi gets praised for Americanizing the roster but does not get knocked for the team accumulating losses. You have to wonder if they are just relying too heavily on American freshmen to step in and immediately make a big impact in the college game. It is clear that Yancy Dennis in particular is going to need some time to adapt to the college game before being a big contributor for this team. O’Keefe and Mayronne will have to shoulder a lot of the burden if this team is to be competitive in the SEC this year. Can they do it? It will definitely help if Gabriel Friedrich ever returns from injury. All is not lost for this team (unlike the other 3 on this list), but things will be tough regardless.

Sliding Downward honorable mentions: Duke, Baylor, UTSA, UL-Lafayette

There is still a ton of tennis left to be played. We have only seen 5% of what these teams can do so far. Nothing is guaranteed. Any of these teams written about or listed in the honorable mentions can prove me wrong one way or another. One thing I CAN guarantee though is that this college tennis season will be 100% free from match fixing. And that is definitely not something the ATP can say.

Jeff McMillan (Clemson)

College Tennis Buys and Sells: Spring 2015

Posted by Admin on March 24, 2015
Posted in: College Tennis, Jeff McMillan, NCAA. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

College Tennis Buys and Sells: Spring 2015
Jeff McMillan, Tennis Atlantic

NCAA_Tennis_Logo

The college tennis season is in full swing and conference play is heating up as the weather gets hotter all around the country. Here is a look at whose stock you should buy and whose stock you should sell as we go deeper into conference play.
BUY
buy
UNC-Wilmington: UNCW has been a strong mid-major program, for years now but early this season the Seahawks looked to be a much weaker version of previous years teams. A loss to UNC-Greensboro seemed to seal UNCW’s fate as 2015 being a rebuilding year. But the Seahawks had other ideas. They fought back and got big wins over Drake and Penn State, both top 45 teams to launch themselves into the rankings at 49 and cement their place as a strong mid-major team once again in 2015.

Virginia Tech: The Hokies have surprised a lot of people early in the ACC season. They started ACC play by upsetting Notre Dame which was a very positive start to the conference season but the real eye-opener was the 6-1 domination of Duke, without #1 player Amerigo Contini. Since then VT survived a tough test from NC State, who was all set to take an important upset win, but the Hokies dug in and denied the Wolfpack the win. A huge part of the Hokies success and their rise to #16 in the nation has been the play of Hunter Koontz, who has only 1 loss this season at the number 4 and 3 positions.

Eric Johnson: The USC Trojan senior has become a rock for his team in the midpoint of the lineup this season. He has only one loss on the dual season and has been beating his opponents by lopsided scores, including ranked players Ralf Steinbach and Maxime Tchoutakian.

Quentin Monaghan: The Notre Dame leader at #1 has been one of the top players in the nation all season. However what he lacked was a signature win, but he got that Friday with a straight set win over Virginia’s Ryan Shane, improving to 6-1 vs ranked opponents in the past month with his only loss coming to the #1 ranked player in the country, Sebastian Stiefelmeyer of Louisville. He is leading the charge on what has been a big of a rebuilding year for the Irish.

Matches on TV: College tennis fans have been able to enjoy college tennis on TV this year more than ever. Just in the past few weeks, matches have been shown on ESPN3, the Pac 12 network and the Longhorn Network. The broadcasts have been well done and have been exciting for every involved. Hopefully we see even more of this in the future.

Sell

sell

Cameron Norrie: The TCU freshman burst onto the scene in the fall with several huge wins and skyrocketed to the ITA top 20 immediately. He was widely expected to be a stalwart at #1 for the Horned Frogs all season. However the Kiwi has come on hard times recently. After losing 5 of 8 at the #1 position he was moved down to #2 and is now playing at #3 for TCU. In the past two weeks he has had two lopsided losses to unranked players (6-1 6-3 to Ettore Zito of MTSU and 6-1 6-1 to Chris Kipouras of Dartmouth). He still has time to regain his fall form, but TCU will need him as the season gets to the business end.

SEC veterans: This year has seen 3 SEC players have unexpectedly horrendous seasons, players that had been very solid in previous years. Andrew Adams of South Carolina, Hunter Reese of Tennessee and Harrison Adams of Texas A&M. All 3 of these SEC veterans have piled up the losses in the spring of 2015. Adams and Reese are leaving their schools on low notes, as the senior leaders combine for 2 wins on the season vs teams with a pulse (Andrew Adams has wins over A&M and Stanford while Reese has zero wins of significance). Harrison Adams likewise has had dreadful results. The junior Aggie currently has ZERO wins vs any team since the dual season began. The struggle of these 3 once very good SEC players is baffling and goes to show that any slip in game can cost you dearly in stout college tennis competition.

Naoki Takeda making the NCAA individual field: Arizona men’s tennis has been in bad shape for a while now, but despite the horrible season they are having this year the one bright spot has been Takeda who was as highly ranked as #29 in the nation this year. However in the past few matches he has had two troubling losses to unranked players, which has put his chances of representing Arizona in the NCAA individual tournament in May in jeopardy. The blow of his loss to Peter Nagy of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi has softened with Nagy going into the rankings at 73 but his loss to Garrett Patton of Boise State is still very damaging. His high ranking is tenuously based off the strength of a lone win over Dominik Koepfer of Tulane. He will need one more big scalp in Pac 12 play if he wants to play in the 64 player draw in May in Waco.

The Pac 12: While usually a tennis powerhouse, the Pac 12 has been one of the weaker major conferences this season. Southern Cal is a smidge weaker than they have been in the previous championship winning seasons and UCLA is a top 15 now rather than a top 5 team like in the past few years. The top of the conference has gone down a bit but the real struggle has been in the lower parts of the conference. Oregon, Arizona, Washington and Utah would all miss the tournament if the tournament started today and while Oregon and Washington have a chance to make the tournament if they can get some wins coming up, Utah and Arizona both have no chance. Cal is also ranked much lower (low 20s) than they have been recently and Stanford is right around the NCAA tournament bubble. If the Pac 12 wants to be regarded as a top tennis conference again, they must have multiple top 30 teams. Teams like the bottom 4 must improve and strengthen the depth that the other major conferences currently have.

Match abandonment: This controversial practice is the norm in conference play for the Pac 12 and the SEC. It creates a ton of unfinished singles matches, many of which are very close to finish anyway. Recently Xander Veys of UNC-Wilmington was up 4 match points on #38 Ben Lott of Drake when a match on an adjacent court finished clinching the match for UNCW. Ben Lott just stopped playing and walked away, robbing Veys of a big ranked win. Match abandonment makes for uneven records, as some players in the SEC have more unfinished matches than finished ones and it messes up individual rankings for the whole nation. Teams and players would benefit from every match being finished (within reason) as they do in the Big Ten and in the ACC.

Tennis Atlantic’s Inaugural College Tennis Conference Power Rankings

Posted by Admin on March 4, 2015
Posted in: Jeff McMillan, NCAA. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

Tennis Atlantic’s Inaugural College Tennis Conference Power Rankings
Jeff McMillan, Tennis Atlantic

tennis power rankings

One of the most contested debates in collegiate sports these days is always which conference is the strongest. I have created a formula that determines the college tennis conference power rankings. The formula works to determine the quality per team in each conference and ranks the conferences based on an average score.

The formula works as follows:

The lower the score the better. It assigns teams points based on ITA ranking.

Teams ranked 17-75 are assigned the same amount of points as their ranking.

Unranked teams are given a flat score of 90 (meaning that the conferences without any ranked teams are given the lowest possible score of 90)

Teams 1-16 are given the following point assignments:

1. -25
2. -21
3. -18
4. -15
5. -12
6. -10
7. -8
8. -6
9. -4
10. -2
11. 0
12. 2
13. 4
14. 6
15. 8
16. 10

The top 16 teams in the nation are the host teams come tournament time so naturally the point gap from 16 to 17 is larger. Teams in the top 10 have negative point values in order to reward conferences with multiple top 10 teams. The gaps are wider at the top to indicate the gap in strength. The #1 team and the #11 team have a 25-point gap, which indicates the same gap in strength from the team ranked 25 and the team ranked 50.

All team scores are added together in the conference and then divided by the amount of teams in the conference.

Example:
Big 12
Oklahoma #1, -25
Baylor #5, -12
Texas #7, -8
TCU #13, 4
Texas Tech #30, 30
Oklahoma State #37, 37

Added together the Big 12 total is 26/6 which = 4.33 and (as will be shown) blows away any other conference in the inaugural Tennis Atlantic Conference Power Rankings.

Tennis Atlantic Conference Power Rankings:

1. Big 12: 4.33
– The Big 12 comes in at #1 due to the fact that they have no teams ranked lower than 37 and have 3 teams in the top 7 and 4 in the top 13. The quality per team in the Big 12 is by far and away the strongest in the nation.

2. SEC: 33.08
– The SEC comes in 2nd due to having 3 teams in the top 10. Where they lose points is having two unranked teams.

3. ACC: 38.62
– The ACC falls behind the SEC based on having 3 unranked teams instead of 2 and only having 1 team in the top 10.

4. Ivy League: 38.88
– The Ivy League is barely behind the ACC and comes in at #4. The Ivy League has such a strong score because they only have 1 unranked team out of 8 and of the ranked teams none are ranked lower than 49. The lack of a top 10 team prevents them from being ranked higher.

5. Pac 12: 43.75
– The Pac 12 comes in at a surprisingly low 5th. Utah dropping out of the top 75 hurts as does USC dropping to #6. Stanford, Washington and Oregon having relatively low rankings does not help either.

6. Big Ten: 45.33
– The Big Ten has 3 unranked teams and 3 other teams outside the top 50, which kills their overall score and drops them to the 6th spot in the conference rankings.

7. American Athletic: 64.44
– There is a substantial gap in score from #6 to #7 where the AAC comes in. 4 of the 8 teams in the conference are unranked. USF at 17 is their high.

8. Mountain West: 75.13
– Another big gap follows #7 to #8. The Mountain West like the AAC has half of their teams ranked (4 out of 8). They have a lower score than the AAC due to their highest ranked team New Mexico only being at #45.

9. West Coast: 75.55
– Starting at #9 are teams that have the majority of their teams unranked and only a few ranked ones. The West Coast is the highest ranked of such conferences thanks to 3 ranked teams, including #32 San Diego #43 Pepperdine and #50 San Francisco.

10. Missouri Valley: 77.14
– The MVC is at #10 thanks to Drake being in the top 25 and also Wichita State coming in the rankings at #66.

11. Big West: 78.83
– The Big West has half of their teams ranked, but none higher than #61.

12. Sun Belt: 78.86
– The Sun Belt is just barely behind the Big West after Troy zoomed into the rankings this week joining South Alabama and UL-Lafayette. They are hurt by having more unranked teams than the Big West.

13. Summit League: 83.14
– Starting at #13 are leagues with only 1 ranked team. Denver’s lofty ranking at 42 helps the Summit League.

14. Atlantic Sun: 84.43
– North Florida at #51 gets the A-Sun to #14.

15. Conference USA: 85.38
– The CUSA has two ranked teams (ODU at 68 and Rice at 75). However, the low rankings of these teams is not enough to overcome the single higher ranking of North Florida or Denver and therefore it puts the CUSA behind those two leagues.

16.Mid-American: 87.33
– Western Michigan sneaking into the rankings gives the MAC a barely register-able above 90 score.

17. Colonial: 87.38
– UNC-Wilmington keeps the Colonial above the 90 score.

The other 14 conferences in D1 have the lowest possible score of 90, meaning none have ranked teams. Those conferences are:

Atlantic 10
Big East
Big Sky
Big South
Horizon
Metro-Atlantic
MEAC
Northeast
Ohio Valley
Patriot
Southern
Southland
SWAC
WAC

Jeff McMillan (Clemson)

The Dane Train: How @TexasMTN Player Soren Hess-Olesen Became The Best In College Tennis

Posted by Admin on February 23, 2015
Posted in: ITA, Jeff McMillan, NCAA. Tagged: , , , , , , .

The Dane Train: How @TexasMTN Player Soren Hess-Olesen Became The Best In College Tennis
Jeff McMillan, Tennis Atlantic

Soren Hess-Olesen (Photo: Tennisavisen.dk)

Soren Hess-Olesen (Photo: Tennisavisen.dk)

When the new ITA singles rankings are released on Tuesday, do not get caught up in the numbers. Do not allow them to fool you into believing something other than Soren Hess-Olesen being the best player in college tennis right now. The Texas Longhorn Senior from Aarhus, Denmark is bar none the best player in the land in this snapshot of the moment.

It would be very hard to argue otherwise based on recent results. In the past 5 months, starting in the fall tournaments, Hess-Olesen has only lost twice: to Cameron Norrie of TCU in a 3 setter and to Sebastian Stifelmeyer of Louisville, who was having an out of body experience all week long in the Tulsa All-American tournament. Since the dual match season has started, Soren has dropped just one set, let alone an entire match.

Here are some of his recent big wins:
def #6 Brayden Schnur (UNC) 6-4 6-1
def #13 Winston Lin (Columbia) 6-2 6-1
def #81 Leonard Stakhovsky (Penn State) 7-5 6-2
def #53 Chris Diaz (Ohio State) 6-4 6-2
def #25 Leandro Toledo (Minnesota) 6-1 7-5

As the results show, he is taking on some of the very best in college tennis and simply obliterating them.

However, this should come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to college tennis the past couple seasons. Last year Soren Hess-Olesen amassed a 19-3 record at #1 for Texas and advanced to the ITA national semifinals in the individual tournament before eventually falling to champion Marcos Giron. Last year is when it started to click for Soren. His 19-3 record was a vast improvement from his 12-9 record at #1 in his sophomore season. This year, he is a fully formed player and taking on all comers in impressive fashion.

When one watches Soren Hess-Olesen play, they are not blown away by a single great shot, by any great power nor by any blinding speed or footwork. But what is evident when watching a Hess-Olesen match is that he is in control. He dictates and he decides what happens in the match. He does this with a quiet ability to absorb his opponent’s best shots and redirect them all over the court, often for winners. If you are reading this and imaging a “solid” player then you are wrong. Solid suggests that there is nothing special about the particular player it is being used to describe, but there is something special about Soren Hess-Olesen. His levelheadedness and match strategy far exceeds most players in the college game. You can tell that in every match he is determining the best way to beat his opponent. His ability to disguise his shots and plans are also above the typical college level, as can be seen every time his opponent is exasperated when yet another winner goes past them off of a perfectly executed re-direct.

The season is still long and Soren will have plenty of big matches upcoming aginst other great college players like Julian Lenz of Baylor, Andrew Harris/Axel Alvarez of Oklahoma and Noah Rubin of Wake Forest. These will be tremendously high quality affairs and if Soren Hess-Olesen is what I believe that he is, the best player in the college game, then he will overcome the big challenges ahead.

Jeff McMillan (Clemson)