Domijan, Juricova Top ITA Preseason Rankings; ITA All-American Fields; NCAA Announces Penalties for Boise State
It's time to begin preparing for the college tennis fall season, which begins this weekend on many campuses. I have three college individual events on my live coverage schedule for this fall, the Land Rover Napa Valley Tennis Classic which is next weekend, hosted by Cal, the ITA Men's All-American in Tulsa in October and the USTA/ITA Intercollegiate Indoor Championships in New York in November.
The ITA released its preseason rankings last Friday, with Virginia's Alex Domijan and NCAA champion Jana Juricova of Cal starting the year in the top spots. Bradley Klahn of Stanford and Steve Johnson of USC are taking the fall off to compete in professional events as amateurs.
Here are the top 10 in singles and top 5 in doubles:
MEN:
1. Alex Domijan, Virginia
2. Blaz Rola, Ohio State
3. Eric Quigley, Kentucky
4. Henrique Cunha, Duke
5. Chase Buchanan, Ohio State,
6. Wil Spencer, Georgia
7. Dennis Nevolo, Illinois
8. Evan King, Michigan
9. Jose Hernandez, North Carolina
10.Sebastian Fanselow, Pepperdine
Doubles:
1. Kevin King and Juan Spir, Georgia Tech
2. Chris Thiemann and Marcel Thiemann, Ole Miss
3. Chase Buchanan and Blaz Rola, Ohio State
4. Clifford Marsland and Ashley Watling, Tulsa
5. Christoffer Konigsfeldt and Nick Andrews, California
Mitchell Frank of Virginia, Yannick Hanfmann of USC and Mate Zsiga of Baylor are the top three in the men's freshmen/newcomer rankings.
WOMEN:
1. Jana Juricova, Cal
2. Allie Will, Florida
3. Kristy Frilling, Notre Dame
4. Denise Dy, Washington
5. Lauren Embree, Florida
6. Zoe De Bruycker, North Carolina
7. Nicole Gibbs, Stanford
8. Josipa Bek, Clemson
9. Chelsey Gullickson, Georgia
10.Marta Lesniak, SMU
Doubles:
1. Keri Wong and Josipa Bek, Clemson
2. Shinann Featherston and Lauren McHale, North Carolina
3. Linda Abu Mushrefova and Nida Hamilton, Northwestern
4. Sofie Oyen and Allie Will, Florida
5. Kristy Frilling and Shannon Mathews, Notre Dame
Trice Capra of Duke, Robin Anderson of UCLA and Ellen Tsay of Stanford are the top three in the freshmen/newcomer rankings.
The complete rankings can be found at the ITA website's ranking page.
The All-American fields were announced at the same time as the rankings and the men's tournament, which has a 64 field, features four Ohio State Buckeyes and four Virginia Cavaliers, which includes Mitchell Frank, who received the ITA wild card.
The list of selections and other tournament information is available here at the ITA tournament page.
The women's Riviera All-American is a 32 field, with Trice Capra getting the ITA wild card. Three Stanford players--Mallory Burdette, Nicole Gibbs and Stacey Tan--are in, but Kristie Ahn, who would have qualified based on her ranking of 15, is not on the list.
For the complete women's field and more information about the tournament, see the ITA tournament page.
And finally, the NCAA investigation into Boise State athletics, which resulted in athletic director Gene Bleymaier losing his job last month, is complete and the report has been issued. The women's tennis team was barred from postseason play for a year, and cannot recruit internationally for two years. For a concise synopsis of the punishment, see this story from KVTB.com. At the bottom is a link to the full 73-page NCAA report if you are interested in seeing how minutely detailed these investigations can be.
14 comments:
Start of the college season is always fun. Always interesting to see who hopped teams - the only one that I saw of note was Tripper Carleton switching from Wake to Florida. Hadn't seen that previously. I think this was asked before but where is Sekou Bangoura. Did he turn pro or is he on the Klahn/Johnson 2nd semester plan? Virginia and Ohio State's depth is remarkable. Tennessee may take one of the largest one-season drops in NCAA history.
What is wrong with Sock? Good results at the Open but he really has had almost zero success this summer (and then including this week) on the Challenger circuit. Losing twice in a row to Venus and then this week? Some of the losses are not even that close. Hope he can turn it around.
Singh left Illinois for Georgia. As for Sock, maybe post us open letdown. He beat Bogdanovic comfortably in January and Bogdanovic is no slouch as he beat Young in Aptos.
Bangoura is also taking the fall off.
Sock will be fine, he is a winner. However, he needs to get the ranking into the Top250 by the end of the year. I suggest he take his talents to Europe this fall and hit the Challenger circuit to get his butt kicked by some guys he's never heard of.
I heard that Zach Leslie also left Wake Forest to go to Fresno State. What's going on at Wake Forest? Does anyone know why Carleton and Leslie both left?
I also understand that JT Sundling left USC for Texas Christian. Does anyone know why?
Anyone know if the NCAA allows athletes to take the fall off and not take courses and still be eligible to play in the spring? How does that work? ALso heard there were some team violations at Wake Forest but not sure who was involed in that. My guess is Sundling transfered to TCU becasue he wanted to play in the top of the line-up but I must say the schools could not be more different but the TCU coach Rodditi is no slouch. ALso is Bangoura returning to FL becasue he is no listed in the rooster?
Brent and austin.. He won the mixed doubles. How many serious singles players were in that. Exactly zero. He won a round in singles in what might be called the best draw possible. He lost badly to roddick who to say the least wasnt near the top of his game. His challenger results are hardly surprising. Thats what theyve been pretty regularly. Hes the same age as jordan cox denis kudla and ryan harrison yet everyone seems to think because he played the juniors till weeks before he turned 19 hes a junior on the rise. He may be ok in time but kudla and harrison certainly have a jump on him as far as professional development, especially harrison. Can he perform when his ranking gets to the top 200 and hes expected to win. Im not sold on that yet.
This loss against Bogdanovic was the first time he has lost to anyone outside the Top200 not named Michael Venus since January. Of his losses to those inside the Top200, he lost to Michael Ebden twice in three sets, Berlocq in a very close two sets, Sweeting in qualfying at Delray & a competitive match against Roddick at US Open. He also has wins over a couple Top200 guys, plus just beat the 97th ranked player in his second major.
How on earth was Gicquel the best draw possible??? He is better than the 16 qualifiers and 8 wild cards in the draw, plus a few others that got in on their own. At worst he was a tougher draw than 27 other players.
I dont know where the Sock hate is coming from, he hasnt played a lot of tournaments yet, and when he has he's played pretty well outside a couple bad matches. I'm not saying he will be Top10, but based on his results there is little merit to question where he is at.
I have no clue where those two good matches from Kudla came from in Newport, but outside that he hasnt won a main draw match on any level since a Futures event in May except for one win at the Winettka Challenger in June. I dont know how you say he is farther along than Sock based on that. I look at it and see how many more matches he has played and lost this year.
Harrison is above them both, there's no doubt about that, and he will probably always be ahead of them. Here is where I see each of their careers going based on current top Americans:
Harrison:Roddick(not including 2003 season)
Sock:Fish(not including 2011 season)
Kudla:Ginepri(not including 2005 season)
Austin..Its not hating on someone. Its giving an opinion based on what you see in results. Just like you did with Kudla. I see his results as extremely mediocre just as you do Kudlas.
To: College tennis: It must be ok to do b/c Chelsey Gullickson (UGA) won the NCAA's in the spring (year before last), and then took the next fall off to try to pro's.
* She came back to the UGA team this last Spring.
I can only think of a few players that have taken a fall semester off to then compete and be eligible for their spring season. That privilege is usually reserved for upper classmen who have accumulated enough hours to have a type of 'reserve." That reserve will meet both the university and NCAA requirements for eligibility. I believe that to be the case for both Steve Johnson and Brad Klahn. Alex Lacroix took his fall semester off a couple of years ago but was actually studying abroad to keep his eligibility. Perhaps Bangoura has some hours in the bank or he could be taking online classes at Florida , that would work too.
Bangoura withdrew from UF. Whether he returns, no clue. But he is not in school and is off the roster.
another Gator bites the dust...
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