Tennis Channel / USTA College Tennis Top 25 — February 27, 2019
ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 27, 2019 – While the top of both the Men’s and Women’s Tennis Channel / USTA College Tennis Top 25 polls went largely undisturbed over the last seven days, victories on opposite coasts of the U.S. gave boosts to one traditional men’s and one burgeoning women’s contender.
On the men’s side, USC took down rival UCLA at home, 4-1, powered by singles wins from Logan Smith (Sr., Carlsbad, Calif.), Riley Smith (Jr., Long Beach, Calif.) and Jake Sands (Fr., Los Angeles). That lifted the Trojans back to No. 11 (tied with Mississippi State), after they’d fallen to No. 14, their lowest ranking in the poll’s three seasons.
For the women, UCF flourished under the spotlight of College MatchDay at the USTA National Campus to defeat Florida, 4-3, in front of a national television audience on Tennis Channel. The victory was UCF’s seventh win in a row and put them into the Top 25 for the first time in 2019.
Each team’s point total, specified below, is the sum of its ranking points from the USTA’s panel of 14 voters (listed below). Each voter ranked 25 teams from Nos. 1 to 25, with the first-place team receiving 25 points and the last place team receiving one. For control, the highest and lowest outlying ranking for each team on the ballot was removed. First-place votes were not tallied. The maximum points a team can earn is 300.
The full list of voters participating in the 2019 rankings are: Casey Angle (former Intercollegiate Tennis Association Director of Championships); Jordan Bishop (The News Press; Stillwater, Okla.); Virgil Christian (USTA Collegiate Tennis); Richard Croome (The Eagle; Bryan, Texas); Sonny Dearth (Daily Press; Newport News, Va.); Granger Huntress (Texas College Tennis); David Fish (Universal Tennis Ratings); Andy Katz (NCAA.com); Bobby Knight (College Tennis Today); Brandon Moglen (Tennis Channel); Shannon Wrege (Tennis Recruiting Network); Michael Patrick (former University of Tennessee women’s head coach), Lisa Stone (Parenting Aces) and Caitlin Thompson (Racquet Magazine).
MEN’S POLL
Rank (Last Week) – Points
1. (1) Ohio State – 300
2. (2) Wake Forest – 287
3. (3) Texas – 276
4. (4) North Carolina – 263
5. (5) Virginia – 249
6. (6) Stanford – 236
7. (7) TCU – 217
8. (8) Florida – 210
9. (9) Columbia – 209
10. (11) Baylor – 189
T11. (12) Mississippi State – 173
T11. (14) USC – 173
13. (13) Illinois – 154
14. (10) UCLA – 149
15. (15) Tennessee – 124
16. (16) Michigan – 117
17. (18) Florida State – 107
18. (19) Oklahoma – 82
19. (17) Notre Dame – 68
20. (21) Minnesota – 66
21. (23) South Carolina – 47
22. (25) Oregon – 41
23. (24) LSU – 39
24. (22) Texas A&M – 36
25. (20) Alabama – 30
Receiving Votes: Arizona 13, Tulane 5, Miami (Fla.) 3, California 2, Vanderbilt 1.
Dropped Out: None.
WOMEN’S POLL
Rank (Last Week) – Points
1. (1) Georgia – 300
2. (2) North Carolina – 288
3. (3) Stanford – 275
4. (4) Duke – 265
5. (5) UCLA – 251
6. (6) Vanderbilt – 237
7. (7) Texas – 227
8. (8) South Carolina – 208
9. (9) Michigan – 207
10. (10) Ohio State – 197
11. (11) Florida State – 167
12. (12) Kansas – 165
13. (13) Pepperdine – 147
14. (16) NC State – 130
15. (15) LSU – 129
16. (14) Virginia – 119
17. (20) Oklahoma State – 111
18. (17) Miami (Fla.) – 80
19. (19) California – 73
20. (22) Syracuse – 65
21. (T23) Kentucky – 56
22. (21) Northwestern – 50
23. (25) Washington – 42
24. (NR) UCF – 35
25. (18) Florida – 17
Receiving Votes: Boston College 15, Texas A&M 12, Tennessee 8, Auburn 1, Wake Forest 1.
Dropped Out: Boston College (T23).